Between a rock and a hard Place
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: four years ago the guys went back to mars in the hopes that the war had ended and were captured by the plutarkians.four years later,an old friend has asked some people to go to Mars and check up on them.will they be able to piece them back together?
1. Chapter 1

Okay, I know that I just started another story last night. But my mind works in _odd_ ways so just bear with me and I'll get back around to that one.

Right now I sort of want to try my hand at this story.

Just a little bit of a warning this story will be rated _M_ for a reason that could range from _language_, to _adult situations_ to _gory detail_ on torture methods.

Like I mentioned before, my mind works in odd ways. If your expecting nothing but non stop fluff and cuteness then you might want to avoid this story, because life is rarely fluffy and cute. And I get pretty damn dark sometimes.

Summary- They had left earth and their friend behind with the hopes that the war was over. However it wasn't over. Four years have passed and the mice have been captured by the Plutarkians and were tortured for years and now have an execution order hanging over their head. But an old friend has been worried about the guys and has asked some friends to go to Mars and check up on them.

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He crumbled to the floor the second he was back in his cell, his legs had simply been incapable of holding him upright any longer. His lungs struggled to pull air into his body as he sat there on the floor of his cell, bleeding, his sides aching from where the interrogator had taken a wicked looking set of alien brass knuckles to his ribs before he had started cutting him.

Every day for the past three years he and his bros were dragged from their cells, beaten, cut up, beaten some more then dumped back in their cells to rest so that they could do it all over again in the morning.

The Plutarkians wanted them _alive_ to give them information. But so far he and his bros hadn't cracked. It would take far more than what the fish creatures could dish out, to break them. Not that the Plutarkians didn't seem to have fun trying.

The fin faced bastards were real sadists.

He heard the faint sound of movement to his left and glanced in that direction to see the shadowy figure of Modo as the gray furred giant pressed his face against the bars, his one eye looking concerned. "You okay bro?" Modo asked in his rough, broken voice.

He gave the elder male a pained looking smile and crawled over to the bars, despite the fact that moving right now _hurt_ so damn much and settled his back against the bars. "I'm alive." Was really all that he could say since they had _long_ stopped saying that they were fine.

Saying that they were fine after the shit that they had been through in the past three years would be a lie. A huge, hurtful lie. Because they knew that regardless of whether or not they got out of the cells or off of the base; they would never be alright again. "Hows Vinny?" He asked after a second or so, as soon as he could think enough to ask.

Vinny had been forced to drink an acid like substance a few days ago and had been running a high fever and having trouble breathing but so far the Plutarkian doctor that had taken a look at their bro had told them that the acid wouldn't kill the white mouse as long as he rested properly. Which was probably the only reason why the interrogator had been paying extra attention to Modo and himself in the past few days.

Again, the dumbass bastards needed them alive.

"I think he's okay. I noticed earlier that his breathing is a little bit easier today, and he seems to be resting better."

"Is he in pain?"

"I don't think so. At least not like he was the other day." Modo said as he settled himself against the bars so that he was sitting back to back with Throttle. The other sighed tiredly and leaned his head back against the cold iron and closed his eyes.

"That's good to hear..." He said weakly as he felt himself starting to drift off while Modo tried to occupy them both with stories of what he was going to do once they were free again.


	2. Chapter 2

Mars wasn't anything like what they had thought it would be. The terrain was dessert like with deep gorges and canyons with little streams and rivers. There was greenery and plants, which meant that they could breathe the air without worrying about suffocating and flowers and animals that they had never seen before- Like the boar like creature with wings and a lions main that their commander had just shot down.

It seemed like an interesting creature. A little bit on the scary side, but interesting just the same. "Is everyone alright?" Commander Bell asked as she turned her head and looked at them, her green eyes calculating.

"I'm good." Gabriel Bell, Commander Bell's older brother said as he looked over his sister before turning his head and looking over the rest of the group. There were five of them in all that had been chosen for this mission. Or maybe 'job' was a better way to put it since that was what this was. An old friend/relative of Gabriel and his sister had called them a while back and asked them to take an extended leave so that she could explain what she needed them for.

It had taken some doing, a lot of bullying and blackmail among other things, but they had finally managed to get the extended leave that Charlene had asked them to take. They had driven to Chicago and met up with their friend/relative to see what she had been so adamant about and had been a little shocked and intrigued to find out that Charlene wanted them to go to Mars (as in the actual fucking planet) and check up on her friends who lived there.

It had sounded like something out of a really weird Sci-fi movie at first, but after they listened to the whole story about the guys that Charlie wanted them to check on, they couldn't help but think 'what the hell' and agreed to do as Charlie had asked.

It took them several days to get the gear that they thought that they might need and to buy some bad ass weapons from the local black market and put a team together. Then they had broken into Limberger tower and confiscated the teleporter from the alien and the good doctor and had used it to leave Earth.

The first week on the planet had been..._stressful _to say the least.

Walking along the ruined cities and towns was the worst sort of phychological torture Gabriel had ever suffered in all his nine years of Special Ops work. Everywhere they went he found himself looking down at random things and seeing little singed ribbons and children's toys like maimed stuffed animals that looked suspiciously like mice with antennae.

Sort of like the guys in the picture that Charlene had shown to them before they had agreed to take their current job.

Everyone else didn't bother saying anything. Maybe because they were a little worried that any noise that they made might draw more animals like the one that their leader had shot down. Their commander looked them all over again, then turned and started walking.

They were about three miles from the place that they had picked up radio transmissions from and she wanted to get as close as she could so that she could observe the people on the base and look for weaknesses just in case they ended up close to a Plutarkian base.

Charlene had been very specific about who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Going so far as to even describe the two species and their personality types.

Apparently the martians- From what she had understood of their descriptions were big (standing between 6 foot five to 7 foot six in height, with fur, scarlet eyes, powerful muscular bodies, and long tails that were as strong as steel). They were all military trained, well armed, and were _very_ _efficient killers_ despite the fact that they were generally very peaceful.

Where as the Plutarkians were fish like creatures with violet eyes, sharp fangs and claws, a horrible and _vicious_ personality and smelled strongly like aged cheese.

All in all she couldn't wait to see what the fuckers insides looked like since they sounded like perfectly horrid creatures.

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He doubled over in pain; drawing his knees to his chest gasping for air, his scarlet eyes wide as he tasted blood on his tongue from where the interrogator had taken a metal pipe and hit him good in the stomach as he hung from his wrists from a thick metal chain. He coughed a few times, noticing that a little bit of blood was oozing out of the corners of his mouth, running down his chin. Staining his light brown fur as he wheezed for air.

A few feet away Modo lay on the floor on his side, his gray fur stained a deep sickly red, his one eye staring blankly ahead as blood pooled under his body from the deep jagged cut on his stomach. The interrogator walked over to Modo and put his foot on the older mouses head and slowly started to apply pressure to Modo's head.

Throttle dropped his legs away from his stomach and kicked his legs in an effort to reach the bastard, alarm pulsing through his system. A Plutarkian's body weight was close to three hundred and forty pounds, if the interrogator applied too much pressure to Modo's skull- he'd crush it. "Get away from him!"

The interrogator laughed as his foot barely brushed him.

Dammit this was frustrating! He needed to help Modo but couldn't while he was hanging like this. The interrogator applied a little more pressure and Modo let out a pained cry and started to thrash around in an effort to get away. "_Get away from him!_" Throttle yelled again and swung himself a little more and lashed out, again trying to kick the plutarkian back away from his bro.

"Tell me what I want to know and I might consider letting him go since he won't last much longer anyways."

"Never. I'll never betray my people!"

"Then you'll watch your friend die." The interrogator said in a sadistically happy tone that set Throttle's teeth on edge as Modo cried out again and thrashed around a little more. Dammit, he couldn't betray the others. But he couldn't just let Modo die here either. He closed his eyes for a second and wished that he could block out the sights and sounds around him.

He wished that he could do something. _Anything_...

He gritted his teeth and let out a loud roar as Modo stopped moving, his heart nearly stopping in his chest. "_Alright-_" He'd tell the interrogator whatever he wanted to know. He no longer cared if it got him killed. Not if it could save his bros.


	3. Chapter 3

The cell door closed with a resounding clang that sounded abnormally loud to his ears as he dragged himself across the floor to where Modo lay and reached out with a shaky hand and checked for a pulse. His heart thudding in his chest, he held his breath for a second afraid of what he might not find and exhaled in relief when he felt the slight thudding under his finger tips.

_Oh thank god_. He thought as he fumbled around and grasped Modo's flesh and blood hand in his own and laid his head on the floor and silently cried as Vinny stirred on the dirty cot on the floor a few feet away.

"_Thro-ttle_?" He rasped in his damaged voice. The sound of his voice was so _soft_ compared to what it had once been. Forcing Throttle to strain just to hear him.

"I'm here Vinny-" Throttle croaked as he used his free hand to wipe his eyes. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" He asked weakly and waited to hear Vinny's reply. Vinny swallowed past the lump in his throat. He wanted to ask how badly Throttle and Modo were hurt, but was too afraid.

He could sense that they were hurt badly, he could even smell their blood. And that terrified him. The smell of their blood clinging to the stone floors and the bars of the cell, _terrified_ him beyond measure.

He must have remained silent for too long, because one minute he couldn't see anything but the ceiling above his cot and the next Throttle was in his line of vision with Modo tightly held in his arms, his expression pained.

Vinny blinked and looked them over and sighed and moved over a little bit and patted the cot next to him. Indicating that Throttle could lay Modo down. It took a minute or so because Throttle's stomach and ribs were hurt fairly badly and his movements were slow because moving hurt him, but Throttle laid Modo down next to Vinny then sat back on his heels and didn't move again for a long time.

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They reached the base in record time thanks to the Commanders warped sense of humor, which had caused her to open fire at the lot of them when they hadn't moved fast enough for her liking. Causing them to run like hell whenever she even looked over her shoulder at them after the first time she had opened fire on them.

They had run until they had reached the out skirts of the small crater where the base was before they had collapsed to the ground panting and sweating and swearing up a storm while the commander had pulled out some binoculars and started observing the people on the base.

It took about an hour, but she finally saw some blue green scaled creatures wearing olive green military clothes._ Plutarkians._ The word slithered through her mind like a snake. Chilling her blood as she moved back away from the spot where she had been for the past hour, knowing that if she could see them then they could probably see her too and grabbed her discarded back pack and started going through it, arming herself.

"Commander, what are you doing?" Jenna, the medic that she had picked for this mission, asked as she looked over at her with her wide gray eyes.

"Arming myself. We're in enemy territory."

Someone snorted and the commander turned her head to look at the one who had snorted through narrowed eyes. "You have something to say _Jean_?"

"What enemies? What enemies could we possibly run across out here? We're on Mars for fuck sake!"

The commander rolled her eyes and continued to check her weapons as Gabriel walked up to Jean and kicked him in the back of the head and growled. "I say we let the fish faces have this one. Maybe they'll hollow out his body and try to wear his skin."

"You sound so hopeful-" Jenna said in amusement.

"You bastard! What the fuck do you think your doing?" Jean snarled at Gabriel as he got to his feet and got up in the younger mans face. Gabriel didn't say anything, he just gave the older man a lunatic like smile.

"Both of you separate and shut up." Commander Bell snapped in irritation.

The two looked at her, Jean opened his mouth to tell her to fuck off but stopped when he felt the barrel of Gabriel's gun against his left side. He looked down stupidly just to confirm what he felt and then looked at the younger man with wide disbelieving eyes as his face mottled red as Gabriel leaned in and gave him a quick kiss, causing the man to go fro the bowie knife strapped to his hip and slash at Gabriel who laughed and jumped back just in time to keep his throat from being cut and take off running.

Jean took off after him across the red sand and the commander felt the nearly overwhelming urge to bust a cap in _both_ of their asses, yet refrained as she dug out some of their radio equipment. "Commander? What are you doing?" Mark, the techno whiz, asked her curiously.

She looked at him and smiled as she dug out her I-Pod and motioned for Mark to come over to her. He got up and moved over to where she was and then sat back down in the sand. "I want you to rig this radio, with my I-Pod to play something loud so that we can use it as a distraction to get into the base. After that I want you to jack one of their vehicles-"

Mark listened to her instructions and smiled. He loved the way the commanders mind worked. It was all so _devious_.


	4. Chapter 4

Throttle was sound asleep curled up next to Modo on the floor when there was a sudden ruckus coming from outside. He frowned in his sleep and tried to go back to sleep when he heard something familiar and woke up, jack knifing upright, ignoring the painful burning and throbbing sensation in his stomach and ribs and startled Modo and Vinny awake just in time to hear,

**_Carry on my wayward son-_**

**_They'll be peace when you are done. _**

**_Lay your weary head to rest-_**

**_Don't you cry no more._**

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The commanders plan to draw the Plutarkian's away from their base worked like a charm. The second they had picked up the sounds from their radio equipment the fish aliens had all but swarmed out of the base and run towards the sound with their weapons ready.

The morons had swarmed in such high numbers that they had left only a handful of their people behind to protect the base. And one couldn't help but wonder just how stupid they were.

They'd have more time to contemplate whether or not the Plutarkians were idiots later on. Right now they were busy picking the aliens off and doing a sweep of the base. The commander had told them that she wanted the baser checked for prisoners before they destroyed it. So that was what they were doing. And though sweeping the base was time consuming and could cost them dearly if they were caught, so far they had managed to go through at least half of the base when team one consisting of the commander and Gabriel ran across a room that had four guards.

Gabriel looked at his sister as she checked the clip in her gun before popping it back into place and tossed two bullets down the hall across from them and then quickly moved back behind the large crates that were stacked over by the wall.

There was a loud growl followed by the surprisingly loud sound of feet pounding down the hall and Gabriel peeked out from around the corner of one crate and noted that three of the four guards were gone as his sister pulled out her bowie knife and handed it to him. "Get his throat then put it through his skull."

"Sure. But you'll have to distract him."

She smiled at him and stripped off her vest and set it aside and stood up and slipped out from behind the crates while the alien's back was turned and cleared her throat to get the creatures attention.

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Statistically speaking their chances of getting out of the cell alive were less than six percent. Statistically speaking their chances of getting out of the base alive were less than two percent. Still that didn't stop the three martians from getting up and moving close to the door of their cell just in case someone had finally come to rescue them.

The door across the room opened and they tensed and held their breath as a human male with mid back length golden blond hair pulled back into a pony tail came walking into the room and looked right at them with aqua colored eyes as the door opened a little more and another human, this one smaller than the first one.

The second one was a woman, the mice knew that as surely as they knew anything else. The female was simply too delicately boned and petite to be a male. "Are they-" The guy started to say as he pointed at them.

The woman thinned her lips and stared at them with something akin to anger in her expression and slipped the strap of her gun over her head and thrust it into the man's chest so hard that he staggered back a little bit as she walked across the room to the cell and looked at them for a second and gave them a small smile then grabbed the bars on the door and started to pull. "Commander? Don't you need a key?" The guy asked as he walked over and stood right behind her.

The woman said nothing for a second before letting go of the bars and holding her hand out. "Nope. I just need your hand gun."

The man sighed. "Don't you ever get tired of borrowing my things?" He asked as he pulled his hand gun from it's case at his hip and handed it to her. She cocked it and put the barrel up against the lock and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud clanging sound as she stepped back then kicked the cell open and then stepped back again and used her mini radio to contact Mark and tell him where they were while her brother helped the mice out of the cell...

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okay kids, i know that i sort of suck at the fighting scenes and the rescue and such.

I'm sorry about that. but i_ like_ this story and feel that it has some awesome potential. and it will get better as time goes on so please bear with me.

That said, the next chapter will take place a week after the escape.


	5. Chapter 5

Commander Stoker was sitting in his office pouring over maps and marking the Plutarkian bases that he and his teams had searched. It had been three years since he had last seen Throttle, Vinny and Modo and though he had been told to give up hope of ever finding them, he refused to listen.

He knew the chances of his boys still being alive were slim, but dammit they were like family to him! And a man didn't give up on his family, even if it meant going against his orders. He knew that he had failed the guys by not finding them or coming for them sooner, but to keep himself from being thrown in the brig he had to be careful about_ where_ he looked and how _often_ he looked so that he could search for them without hindrance.

But so far he had searched sixteen bases, lost_ ten_ men more than he could afford to lose, found nothing, and to make matters worse. His superiors had found out about his activities and he had been temporarily confined to the base. And forbidden to look any further.

In three days time his boys would be declared dead and a public funeral would be held for them. And if that happened then Stoker felt like he would lose his mind. Because then he would be forced to accept that his boys were truly dead, and never coming back.

He marked the last base and blinked down at the map when he saw that there were no other known Plutarkian bases marked down on the map. "No-" He muttered in horror as he scanned the map again. How could he have gone through all of the enemy bases and found no traces of his boys? It just wasn't possible. No, he must have missed something.

A secret base that no one had ever seen or heard of. But if that was the case and his boys were there...

Gods, they would be dead before he could ever reach them. If they weren't already. He closed his eyes and slumped forward a little bit in grief. God he _hated_ this. He hated not knowing if they were alive and being tortured. Or if they were dead and laying in shallow graves, broken.

He took a shuddering breath and picked up the map and started to re fold it then someone knocked on his office door. "Come in." He said tiredly as he put the map away. The door opened and Rimfire, Modo's nephew peeked in.

Stoker looked at the young man and felt a painful sensation in his chest. Rimfire was so much like his uncle that it actually hurt the elder just to look at him sometimes. "What can I do for you Rimfire?"

"I came to tell you that a Plutarkian ship has entered our air space and is transmitting a strange signal."

Stoker frowned. "A strange signal?"

"Yes, sir. It's transmitting the jacking signal." Stoker blinked and cocked his head as he thought about what Rimfire was telling him. The Plutarkian ships were similar to the martian ships, every one of them had similar guns, steering systems, set ups and of course jacking signals to indicate when a ship had been stolen by someone unauthorised to drive it.

"Do you think it's them?" Stoker found himself asking the young man in a strained voice. He wasn't sure what to think. Throttle, Vinny and Modo were the strongest most willful men that he had ever met before in his life, but Stoker found it just a little hard to believe that they would be held in captivity for three years then finally manage to escape.

It didn't make sense. Especially since there was no telling what condition the three may be in. "I don't know-" Rimfire said after a second or so. "But if there is even the slightest chance that it could be them, then I'm going to check it out."

Stoker was around his desk and across the room in the blink of an eye. "I'm coming with you."

"Great. We should get Carbine too just in case- Hey! Don't run off without me!"

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Throttle and Vinny were sitting up in their beds looking around the room while Modo still slept.

They'd been like this ever since the humans had taken them from the Plutarkian base a week ago. Every time they woke up from their drug induced sleep, they felt the need to look around and make sure that they were actually free.

That they weren't just dreaming.

The door across the room opened and they both turned their heads to look at the two human women that walked through the door. One was the woman who had gotten them out of the cell, the petite and delicately boned platinum blond with green eyes. And the other was a dark haired, golden eyes beauty that had been treating their wounds and running tests.

"How are our boys doing today?" The dark haired woman asked cheerfully as she walked over to Modo's bed and carefully tucked his exposed arm and foot back under the covers and checked the IV in his arm to make sure that he was getting his fluids and medicines like he was supposed too before moving over to Vinny and pulling out a mini flash light and asking him to open his mouth and say 'AHHHH' so that she could check his throat.

Vinny didn't say anything, he just opened his mouth like the woman wanted and let her look inside of his mouth. "Oh you poor guy, you're throat must be really sore." Vinny didn't respond. Of course his throat hurt. He had been forced to drink acid that had _destroyed_ some of the lining on his esophagus. It only stood to reason that his throat would hurt.

Even if the wound itself was partially healed. "Hows your head? Does it hurt?" The woman asked as she clicked the small flash light off and slowly reached out to lay her hand on his forehead. Noting the way the alien tensed and narrowed his eyes at her then slowly shook his head.

She gave him a knowing look and removed her hand before he gave in to the impulse to rip her arm off. "I'm sorry fuzzy. I know that this can't be easy for you after what you and your friends went through."

Vinny made a low growling sound and wanted to snap at the woman. What the fuck did she know of what he and his bros had gone through? She was a human! _A female_. Females were protected and treasured by their kind.

The worst she could have ever suffered was a broken nail!

The woman didn't seem the least bit bothered by his hostility. She finished messing with his IV and moved around his bed to check on Throttle who had remained silent but watchful. He wasn't sure what to think of the humans that had saved them.

He didn't know who they were, what they were doing on Mars. Who had sent them. How they had found them.

For all he knew this was some sort of elaborate plan to gain their trust, make them think that they were safe while they were moved to another base. Then once they were there, they'd break them apart.

But if that was the plan then why wait so long to do it? And why treat their wounds? He just didn't understand.

He remained perfectly still while the dark haired woman checked his heart, his blood pressure, his temp, and gently probed his stomach and ribs looking for any signs of broken bones and internal bleeding before switching out one of his IV bags and fluffing his pillow and then left the room to go get some food for them leaving them alone with the blond haired woman.

Who grabbed a chair from the wall across the room from Throttle's bed and dragged it over to the side of his bed and settled it towards the foot of the bed and sat down in it and sighed tiredly. "God I'm tired." She said in a drowsy voice before she looked at them and propped her cheek in her hand.

"How long were you three stuck in that hell hole?"

"Why do you want to know?" Throttle asked as he leveled his angry stare at her. She was quiet for a second or so then sighed again and stood up and without warning grasped the hem of her shirt and pulled it up over her shoulders and turned her back to them and missed the looks of shock and horror that crossed Throttle and Vinny's faces as she showed them the mass of deep red jagged scars on her back along with the puckered skin from healed gun shot wounds.

"I've spent time in captivity too. Six months worth-" She said as she dropped her shirt back into place then turned back around to face them. They looked at her with stunned expressions on their faces as she sat back down. "It's horrible isn't it? But then you three would know how horrible being tortured is first hand. So I suppose that now that that's out of the way I should tell you who I am."

Throttle and Vinny nodded their heads their expressions sober. "My name is Ruby Bell. I'm the commander of the U.S special ops unit... You've already met some of them. Gabriel, my second in command, Jenna, the woman that has been treating your wounds. The rest are around here somewhere. I'll introduce you once your up to meeting them. Anyways, we came to Mars because a mutual friend asked us to come here and check up on some friends of hers-"

Vinny sucked in a breath as the woman shifted forward in her seat a little bit and pulled a black wallet out of one of her back pockets and opened it and pulled out a piece of paper and held it up for them to see.

It was the picture that the three aliens had taken with their human friend Charlie a month before they had returned to earth. "Charlie-girl? Charlie-girl sent you to find us?" Throttle asked in a weak tone as he fisted his hands in the bed sheets around his waist.

"She was really worried about you guys when she couldn't raise anyone from your base on the radio." Ruby said as she got up and moved so that she could lay the picture on the tan furred alien's bed where he could reach it but stopped when the white furred alien made a soft strained sound and started to get out of bed.

"Hey! What are you doing? Stay in bed." Ruby said without raising her tone as she walked around Throttle's bed and moved to stop Vinny before he could stand up. But Vinny was determined to get up and get the picture and was almost on his feet before Ruby could reach him.

She was on him a second later as he started to get up, her hands gently pushing at his shoulders in an effort to get him back on the bed. His tail thrashed in agitation and he strained against her, trying to move closer to Throttles bed. Ruby made an irritated sound and finally managed to push him back onto the bed and poked him in the nose with her finger tip and growled. "If you want the picture so badly I'll bring it to you. Just stay in bed."

Vinny blinked at her and leaned back a little bit and glared at her for a second then reluctantly shifted himself back into place in the middle of the bed and pulled the covers back up over his legs and made a huffing sound as she grabbed the picture from the other one's bed and gave the guy an apologetic look before she took the picture over to the white furred alien and nearly had her hand taken off when he snatched the picture from her fingers.

"_Charlie..._" Vinny rasped as he stroked the image of the human girl's face his expression reverent.

_Hn_. Who knew that these guys had such a soft spot for her aunt?


	6. Chapter 6

"Are you sure that there is a chance that it's them?" Carbine asked skeptically. It had been three years since she had last seen or heard anything of Throttle, Modo, and Vinny.

"Who else could it be, Carbine? Do we have anyone else that has been captured by the Plutarkians and held prisoner?"

Carbine leveled an icy glare at Stoker. "No." She said evenly. But that wasn't any reason to get excited. Nor was it any reason to believe that it was the guys. They walked down the hall to the command center.

"Has anyone hailed the ship?" Stoker asked.

"We're trying sir." The guy sitting at the radio said as he messed with the dials a little bit and then put his head phones on and tried to hail the ship for what seemed like the hundredth time in so many hours. Leaving the three to stand there anxiously waiting for a reply. Hoping that whoever answered would answer in a familiar voice.

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Mark was messing with the dials on the control panel of the ship when he heard a voice over the speakers. "Ship 36902-P, model L, this is the martian freedom fighters alpha. Do you read? If so please respond or you will be shot down."

"Oh shit-" Mark muttered as he picked up the little walky talky attached to the control panel and tried to think of what to say. So far the words, Please don't shoot us down, seemed like the way to go but it wouldn't guarantee anything. He pressed the button and spoke into the mic, hoping that they would hear him.

"Uh...this is ship 36902-P, model L...uh...please don't shoot."

There was silence for a second before someone ordered him to identify himself. "I'm major Mark Ingram of the U.S special ops."

There was silence again and a husky sounding woman's voice spoke up this time. "The U.S special ops? As in humans from earth?" Mark hesitated for a second, unsure of how much information to give these people then answered.

"Yeah. Humans from earth..."

"You're a long ways from home major." The woman said before asking what he was doing on Mars in a stolen Plutarkian ship. Mark clammed up for a few minutes then replied.

"I'm going to go get my Commander. Please hold." Then got up out of his seat and took off running like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels.

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Ruby had finished her talk with the two conscious aliens a while ago and had sat back down to ask some other questions like what were their names, ages, exct. And had been surprised to find that the soft brown furred alien was names Throttle, he was a general, his age was twenty nine.

The white furred alien was named Vinny, his age was twenty three (or four) he couldn't exactly remember. He was the kid of the group. And the gray furred alien was named Modo, he was thirty two (or three, apparently they had lost count at some point) and the second in command to Throttle.

It wasn't that she was interested in the information per say, it was merely that she didn't want to ask them anything more invasive. So she kept her questions short, and simple. Nothing difficult. Nothing that could damage them or make them relive their past experiences in captivity. And after asking the basic and simple questions she got quiet and let them ask her questions.

They weren't any more invasive than she had been. Asking her age. Vinny was curious about her in general and both wanted to know how she knew Charlie. Figuring that turn about was fair play Ruby answered their questions.

"I'm twenty seven, and Charlie is my aunt."

No sooner than she said this the fur on the two bristled a little bit and they looked at her as if they would like to_ reprimand_ her for something when Mark came running into the room and pointed out the door and wheezed, "Ruby! I need you to go talk to the martians on the radio." The man gasped as he doubled over and rested his hands on his knees.

"The martians?"

"Yeah. I was messing with the radio when they started talking to me. They wanted us to identify ourselves or they would shoot us down so I identified us but they still need to talk to you." Mark said as soon as he was able to catch his breath.

Ruby sighed and stood up and started for the door. "Have a seat and catch your breath then come back to the control room and land this bird. It's time that we deliver our new friends to their comrades in arms."She said before she slipped out the door and started towards the control room.

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Throttle and Vinny remained quiet while the human male sat down to catch his breath. To be honest they had no idea how they were supposed to react to what Ruby had told them about being Charlie-girl's niece. On one had they had been absolutely _shocked_ to learn that Ruby was Charlie's niece. After all Charlie had never really spoken about her family to them, so they had merely assumed that she had _no_ family.

Then there was the horrible fact that Ruby had risked her life to save them. Causing their protective instincts to rear their ugly head. And they had wanted to _tear_ into her for placing herself in danger but couldn't seem to articulate the words enough to actually say anything.

The look on Ruby's face before the male had come into the room had been telling. She had known what was on their minds and she hadn't really cared. She was a soldier after all. And like them before they had been captured, she couldn't_ ignore_ her missions no matter how dangerous they were.

And they were _dangerous_, the two aliens knew that without a doubt. The scars on her back served as a constant reminder to her of what she had sacrificed for the sake of others on her missions. Just like their scars would serve as a constant reminder to the three of them.

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"Hello. Hello. You bastard you better not have run off somewhere-" The voice over the speakers in the control room greeted Ruby as she stepped through the door. Her lips twitched in amusement for a second as she stood there listening to the person speaking. "I expect you to answer me dammit! I want to know what your doing on Mars!"

Ruby snickered. My but whoever was speaking sounded so impatient. She walked over to the control panel and picked up the mic and cut the speaker on the other end of the line off in mid rant. "This is Commander Ruby Bell of the U.S special ops unit. We'll be landing the ship soon and need you to meet us."

The voice was quiet for a second before asking in a suspicious tone. "Why?"

Ruby's lips twitched slightly as she replied. "We have a delivery to make. I'm sure you guys know Throttle, Vinny and Modo, right?" There was the sound of static then someone different, a man from the sound of the voice asked.

"They're alive? You really have them?"

"We pulled them from a Plutarkian base a week ago. Their alive. Just in bad shape."

The voice was curt this time when he spoke. His words were almost a jumbled mess. "_We'llmeetyouwhenyouland._" After that the line went dead.


	7. Chapter 7

Ruby didn't go back to the infirmary after that. Instead she went looking for a room with a shower seeing as she had gone a week without one and was in desperate need of the nice squeaky clean feeling that having running water falling on her head could bring.

It took some doing but she finally managed to find a shower (she knew it was a shower because she tested it before she even bothered undressing to make sure that there weren't any nasty surprises) and stripped and dug some clean clothes out of her back pack and laid the black bra, long sleeved mesh shirt and the spaghetti strapped black tank top shirt and faded jeans aside. And climbed into the Plutarkian ship's shower and stood under the water wishing that she had real soap instead of her mini bottle of jasmine scented body scrub, which she had brought on impulse because the scents reminded her of home and helped her relax.

She poured some into her hands and rubbed the body wash into her skin, using her fingernails on her shoulders and stomach to get some of the more stubborn dirt off of her skin. She'd clean under her finger nails once she was out of the shower and dressed.

She rinsed the body wash off and then picked up the four small travel size bottles of shampoo and conditioner that she had brought, _again_, on impulse. And poured an entire bottle into the palm of her hand and started working it through her thick pale blond hair from tips to roots and rinsed her hair then repeated the process again before conditioning her hair. She finished rinsing off and then climbed out of the tube like closure and pressed the button that shut off the water and stood there dripping wet.

Idly wondering if the damn fish aliens used towels but after a second or so decided that she probably wouldn't really use one that had been touched by the aliens considering that she had found out first hand how much they _smelled_ when she had been back on the alien base acting as a distraction for Gabriel.

It had been like she had been standing right next to ripe roadkill sprinkled with vomit, urine and shit and left to bake in the sun. It had been more than gag worthy, she had nearly puked.

Reaching up she pulled her wet hair back from her neck and shoulders and wrung it out then grabbed her skimpy black satin shorts and pulled them on before grabbing the rest and getting dressed then dug out her hair comb and some rubber bands, a hair clip and several other things.

She wanted to look presentable when she met the martians that were coming to get their friends in the infirmary but she wasn't exactly sure how to achieve her goal when she currently looked like a drowned rat_. Maybe I should ask Jenna to cut my hair or something._ She thought as she picked a wet strand of hair from one of her shoulders and examined it for a second then deemed a hair cut necessary and quickly re packed her dirty clothes and other things into the back pack and walked out of the room to find Jenna.

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Jenna was fussing over the gray furred alien, trying to get him to eat the candy bar in her hand but having no luck. He just sat there and stared at her like the other two. She didn't totally understand nor did she begrudge them for their stand offish behavior around her since she knew it probably had to do with what they had gone through.

But she needed them to try to eat something. Their bodies wouldn't last much longer if they didn't eat something.

She broke off a piece of the candy bar and held it out to the gray giant and spoke to him in a soft soothing tone, trying to coax him into taking the candy from her and eating it. But again he just stared at her. Finally after ten minutes she set the candy bar down and gave up and was about to leave when Ruby walked back in with her back pack slung over one shoulder.

"Jenna, just the person I was hunting for. Would you mind doing me a favor?" Ruby asked in her smoky husky tone of voice. Jenna perked up a little bit.

"I will do whatever you want _if_ you can get them to eat something." Jenna said almost pleadingly as the blond set her back pack down and straitened her spine. Ruby looked over the three and cocked her head.

"Are you boys being difficult?" She wondered aloud as she moved over to Modo's bed and picked up the candy bar and handed it to Throttle who broke it into two and handed it to Modo who broke it into two and kept one piece for himself and handed off the last piece to Vinny. The three ate the pieces of candy then sat back and stared blankly ahead again while Jenna gaped at them.

"What the? It couldn't have been that simple!" Jenna screeched in disbelief as Ruby sat down and dug into her back pack and found the emergency ration bars and candy bars that she had packed.

"But it is that simple, Jenna. If they feel they can't _trust_ you enough to take the food from your hand, then give it to one of them. Because they _trust_ each other." Ruby said as she handed the whole dozen or so bars to Throttle, who then counted out four for him.

Then handed four to Modo who passed them to Vinny then handed Modo another four that he could keep for himself and then broke the rest of the bars into halves and handed the other two mice three halves each then started eating again. "Now that the crisis has been averted, would you mind cutting my hair? It's a lot longer than I want it to be."

Jenna gaped at her for a second or so longer then shook her head and looked at Ruby. "Cut your hair? Whatever for? It's so pretty long!"

"I don't plan to have you cut it all off Jenna-" Ruby assured the dark haired woman as she sat back down. To be perfectly honest she never wanted her hair more than mid back length ever again. Not after the way that her hair had been shorn off like when she had been a captive in an African refugee camp. "I just want it mid back length. Can you do that for me?" Ruby asked in a soft tone.

Jenna sighed and nodded her head and went across the room and dig through her things and came back with a pair of scissors.


	8. Chapter 8

Throttle set his food aside and watched the dark haired female start cutting Ruby's hair. She was about half way through when the mouse noticed that the girl's shoulders were slumped a little bit and her hands were tightly laced in her lap, her knuckles white. And her body trembled slightly from time to time when the scissors made that snipping sound signaling that they were cutting through her hair.

He wanted to tell the dark haired female to back off because Ruby seemed so uncomfortable, but decided to wait and see what happened next. Ten minutes passed, but it seemed like forever. And finally Jenna was done and Throttle couldn't help but think that it was such a pity that Ruby had had her hair cut.

It had looked very nice as it was. Yet as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he ruthlessly pushed it aside. He and his bros had more to worry about than some silly woman's hair. Even if that silly woman _claimed_ to be Charlie's niece.

No right now he was worried that the _dumbass_ humans were setting them up to be captured by the Plutarkians again since their people didn't normally contact enemy ships. Not when they could just shoot first and ask questions later.

Ruby stood up the second the dark haired woman moved away from her and bounded across the room and sort of patted herself down as if she were scared that she might come up missing an ear or a limb or something when Vinny rasped. "_What did the guys on the radio say when you spoke to them_?"

Ruby stopped patting herself down and looked at him, her green eyes wide, her face unnatrually pale. Just what was she worried that the scissors had done to her anyways? "Uh...well first they called me everything but white then they said that they would meet us once we landed."

"Did they give you a code or something?" Throttle asked, his suspicious nature surfacing. If the ones claiming to be their friends hadn't given a _code_ or _password_ to identify themselves with then they should probably re locate the ship to different co ordinates just to be on the safe side since the Plutarkians sometimes posed as martians to capture the soldiers in the field.

Ruby blinked at him and frowned. "No. Do they normally?" Throttle clenched his jaw and fisted his hands in the sheets around his waist and nodded his head slowly. Damn humans. They got them out of that hell hole and now they may end up going back because the humans didn't know shit about their people or how they worked.

"You're thinking that we may be heading into a trap of sorts." It wasn't a question but the mice were a little startled by Ruby's conclusion just the same. It would seem that she wasn't as _stupid_ or _dim_ witted as they had just thought she was.

"Chances are pretty good that if they didn't give you a code or password that it is a trap." The gray furred alien, Modo said, his expression was as blank as the other two but Ruby got the sense that all three were about a second or so away from a good-senses-over-whelming panic attack.

"You boys shouldn't worry-" Ruby said without thinking and earned a few dark looks from the three aliens as she tried to think of what she could do to calm them down and keep them from worrying. The only thing that she could think of was to give them a gun with three bullets.

It may seem a little heartless, but if they were in fact walking into a trap like the three seemed to believe they were then chances were good that Ruby and her people would die in a shoot out. And that would leave the three aliens _defenseless_ since they were in no condition to fight anyone.

Giving them a gun with three bullets seemed the most_ rational_ and the_ kindest_ thing that she could do for them.

Because they could keep themselves from being taken again by the Plutarkians by using the three bullets on themselves. "I'll make sure that you aren't taken again if it is a trap." She said as she pulled her hand gun from the belt that she had attached to her back pack and checked the clip to make sure that there was enough bullets and then cocked the gun and moved over to Throttle and set the gun down on the edge of the bed next to his leg then moved back.

Throttle looked down at the gun then at his bros, then at her, his expression unreadable for a second before he picked up the gun and set it in his lap and gave her a small relieved look then said, "Thank you."

Ruby gave him a cold smile. "Don't thank me for helping you kill yourselves. It's not ideal." She said as she unfastened her belt from her back pack and put it back on and then pulled her spare hand gun out of her back pack along with several other weapons.

All of them vicious looking steel knives with sharp jagged teeth and stuffed one inside the front of her right boot, and picked up another and strapped it to her left upper thigh then put the spare hand gun in the empty holster and pulled out some spare bullets and put them in her pocket. "I'll leave one of my team with you just in case. If he starts shooting, you should take care of business... And just in case I don't get the chance to say it later-" She looked at them and gave them a sad smile. "I'm sorry that I didn't get you home."

Vinny bowed his head at the same time Modo did. Throttle however was finding it hard to breathe. There was a painful heaviness in his chest as she walked out of the room.

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Gabriel was on his way to the infirmary to find his sister when he saw her walking towards him. "Sis!" He said happily as he ran over to her and practically tackled her in his effort to hug her. Ruby made an 'omff' sound and staggered back a little bit while trying to support his weight.

"Dammit Gab. Get off." She growled at him and pushed him back a little bit. He chuckled and staggered back a few steps and looked her over, a habit that he had developed after he had pulled her out of the cage that those damn bastard refugees had put her in after torturing her the night before he and his team had rescued noticed that her hair was shorter than it had been a little while ago.

He narrowed his aqua eyes a little bit and grasped one of the damp strands that had slipped over her shoulder and studied the slight curl at the tip of the strand before saying, "Are you okay?" It couldn't have been easy for her to sit still long enough to have her hair cut no matter what the reason.

"I'm fine-" She said evenly and he tilted his head to the side a little bit and wondered if she was being perfectly honest with him or if she was lying to spare herself some embarrassment. "I need you to do me a favor though."

"Anything. Just name it."

"I need you to get armed and go to the infirmary and keep any potential hostiles out of there."

Gabriel blinked. "Hostiles?"

"Long story short, our alien friends think that whoever contacted us earlier might have been the enemy setting us up for capture."

"Makes sense. Considering that we know so very _little_ about the fish creatures." Gabriel said thoughtfully as he mulled things over from the mouse aliens point of view.

"Yeah. I know. That's why I need you in there to keep the hostiles out."

"Alright..." Gabriel said gently as he started to slip by her but at the last second stopped and leaned in and kissed her cheek figuring that if he might die that now would be a good chance to kiss her like he used too when she was a little girl. It wasn't the same as simply saying that he loved her, but he figured that it worked just as well.


	9. Chapter 9

Hello kittens.

Constructive criticism wanted. Could those of you who read this please tell me how I'm doing so that I can improve.

Is this a good story? A bad one? I need to know.

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Stoker climbed off of his bike the second it was parked and pulled off his helmet. They were a good twenty feet from the large Plutarkian cruiser, behind a bunch of rocks just in case this was a trap of some sort, observing the ship for any signs of movement and so far was seeing none.

"Are we sure that this is the ship that the signal was coming from?" Carbine asked as she pulled off her helmet and ran her slender fingers through her dark hair. Rimfire pulled out a small hand held tracking unit and checked it.

"Yeah. This is the place." The nineteen year old said as he slipped the tracking unit back into his pants pocket and looked at the cruiser and felt the nearly over whelming need to bare his teeth and growl and nearly jumped out of his skin when Stoker gave into the impulse and let out a low feral sounding growl before asking.

"Why can't we see any signs of someone being here?"

"Probably because no one is outside." Carbine said sarcastically and jumped and made a hissing sound when there was a loud 'fwish' sound from the ship a second or so before the ramp on the right side started to lower. Five minutes later the ramp was completely down and two figures started down the ramp.

One male who stood at about six foot five, with short black hair, olive colored skin, and lean build. And a young woman who was just barely six foot, with long mid back length pale, almost white hair, ivory skin and petite build, dressed in black.

_Both_ were human from the look of them. Stoker set his helmet aside and looked at them and then stood up and before either of them could say anything, jumped over the rocks and started for the ship. The two humans noticed him immediately if the way they turned and tensed and held their weapons up was any indication at all. Not that this deterred Stoker any. If it really came to it, he was fairly sure that he could take them. Though it would be a damn shame to kill them.

Especially the woman. It would be a pity to kill her when his race had so few females left.

He was pretty sure that he could take her prisoner and put her in the breeding program and find her a mate. "Hello there. Is Commander Ruby in?" He asked in a deceptively calm tone as he stopped three feet from the two humans.

The woman lowered her gun and the male's dark eyes flickered to her for a second. "I'm Commander Ruby. Who are you fuzzy?" The woman said in an amused tone of voice as he looked at her again. Tall, slender, with lush curves and angelic features; the woman was _far_ from what he thought a human commander would look like.

He must have stared too long without realizing it. Because one second he was staring at her and the next she was in his personal space, her small hand grasping his face and tipping his head up a little bit before she said in a less amused tone of voice. "My eyes are _up_ _here_. Remember that." Stoker blinked at her and felt the incredible urge to salute and say, 'Yes ma'am.' But instead grinned at her.

Oh man, there was no way that he could kill this woman if things went south, not now that he knew she was feisty. It would be too much of a waste. "I'll remember Commander." He almost purred. He just couldn't help himself even though he knew that this was neither the _time_ nor the _place_.

Whether it was a soldier or civilian, he had never had a woman speak to him with such a total lack of _fear_ or _awe_ before. For some reason knowing that this woman wasn't afraid of him. Excited him and sparked his interest. "Well Commander, would you mind showing me my boys so that I can confirm it's them?"

"Sure. But first tell your friends to come out. I'm sure that they might want to see them too." Stoker stiffened a fraction of a second, unsure of what to think or how to react to the human's softly spoken order, then smirked. _My, oh my, but this human was a rare one. And sharp too._ He thought in amusement as he turned and waved to Carbine and Rimfire to get them to come out.

Five minutes later they were all walking through the hall of the ship towards the infirmary. The feeling of _anxiousness_ and _worry_ gnawing at the three aliens as they followed the Commander and her dark haired friend who kept sneaking curious glances at them, yet said nothing despite the fact that he obviously had questions. A few seconds later the male excused himself and ran off. Leaving them in the company of the woman and the three aliens couldn't help wondering if _all_ humans were as foolish as these.

They didn't understand why the male had abandoned his commander when they could pose a threat to her.

The woman stopped in front of an open door and peeked in and looked around for a second. "Gabriel?"

A male, this time a blond that stood at about six foot three, with aqua eyes stepped out of the room directly in front of the woman. "Commander?" He said in a slightly mocking tone and the three aliens studied the two as the woman snorted and pushed him aside.

"Go keep Jean company. I'll come and get you in a little bit." The woman said as she walked into the room a little ways then turned and looked back at them. The male put his hands up in the air, palm out and then turned and started walking away.

"Are you guys coming?" Ruby asked them curiously as Stoker and Rimfire both stepped into the room behind her and looked back at Carbine who quickly shook her head no. If the guys were in there then she couldn't go in there. She _couldn't_ face them. Not after how she had called off the searches and left them in the Plutarkians hands to suffer god knows what.

Stoker sighed and walked towards the woman who was standing at the foot of a narrow gurney like bed covered in white sheets and stopped cold in his tracks when he saw who was in the bed, his eyes widened and his breath left him in a rush as if he had just taken a punch to the gut and his legs nearly buckled. "Vinny." His eyes shifted from the tense white furred young man to the gray one in the bed next to him.

"Modo." Stokers eyes shifted again and landed on Throttle. Dear god he could barely recognize them! Their hair was longer, less kept, their fur was dirty, they had lost so much weight and there were bruises that were visible even _through_ the fur.

And the scars...

Across their necks, arms, chests and lower, disappearing under the bed sheets. If it hadn't been for their earrings, eye patch. and the face mask on Vinny's face, Stoker would _never_ have known who they were.

Just what had the Plutarkians done to them?

He stared at them for a moment or so as Rimfire's hand landed on his shoulder, jolting him out of his thought long enough to pull himself together and say. "Commander, if you don't mind, we'd like to take our boys home now. You and your people can stay with us as our guests until your ready to return to earth."

Ruby made a strange motion with her hand. "Take us away fuzzy."


	10. Chapter 10

Ruby watched the heartfelt reunion between the aliens and their two friends while the third one hung back with a guilty expression on her face. _She must have been the one who abandoned them._ Ruby thought darkly as the two aliens moved away from the beds and walked over to her. She blinked at them and a second later was enveloped in a tight embrace from the dark haired male. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you-" He said over and over again, his voice thick with emotion.

Under normal circumstances Ruby might have laughed and shrugged things off. But she didn't know how to react to the alien's hug, or his words so she just stayed quiet. He said a few more things to her, all of them in a different language, then finally let her go.

Leaving her open to be caught up in a bear hug by the taller, younger looking alien who spun her around once, then proceeded to try and crush the life out of her in an effort to express his happiness and joy and didn't let go of her until one of the wounded aliens snapped something at him in that strange other language, causing the one holding her to promptly let her go and set her on her feet and quickly apologized for squeezing her so hard.

She gave him a pained smile and patted him on the shoulder (frankly she was shocked that she couldn't just reach his head. He was so frigging tall!) and started for the door when the sound of Modo, Vinny's, and Throttle's voices reached her ears, but she didn't think that they were talking to her so she just kept walking.

Leaving the three in their friends hands while she went looking for her brother. The events of the past two weeks were finally catching up to her. Leaving her feeling more exhausted and tired than she had felt in years. She walked down the hall to the cargo bay and found her brother in the middle of hog tying Jean who had been gagged and was on the grate floor wiggling around like mad. Ruby leaned her shoulder against the door frame and snickered.

_God but Jean is going to give Gabriel hell once he got loose._ She thought in amusement as her brother finished tying the knot and lifted his head and saw her. His expression flickering from maniacal glee to curiosity. "Something wrong Commander?" He asked as he got up off of Jean and walked across the way to her and stopped right in front of her. Ruby gave him a small smile and pushed away from the door and nearly knocked him over when the ship lurched to the side causing her to slam into him much harder than she intended too.

He grabbed her with one arm then grabbed the door frame with his other hand just to keep his balance while the ship leveled itself. Once it looked like the ship wasn't going to lurch side ways again Gabriel let go of the door frame and looked down at his little sister. "You okay Ruby?"

"I'm peachy. Just wondering which fur ball is responsible for the ship doing that."

"Probably the female..."

Ruby scowled at him for a second. "What makes you say that?" She asked curiously. Gabriel grinned at her. If she thought that he was going to fall for _that_ old trap, she was sadly mistaken. He wasn't going to give her a reason to smack him.

"Nothing in particular-" Except that he had seen the alien female arguing with Mark at gun point earlier. "By the way, we may need to check on Mark and make sure that he's still alive." Ruby made an irritated sound and hung her head as she leaned into him.

"Do you think whoever is in the cockpit with him, did him bodily harm?"

"Possibly."

"Well, life is for the living. Its so sad that he died so young-" Ruby said softly and Gabriel had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Oh man that was so cold. "Now lets go take a nap." Ruby said suddenly as she grasped his hand and tried to pull him out of the room, but he refused to move causing her to tip her head back and look at him with a curious expression on her face.

He stared at her for a second, noting the slightly darker circles under her eyes, wondering why he hadn't really noticed them earlier when he had passed her in the hall and tried to recall the last time she had slept more than two hours. It must have been a while since he couldn't remember.

And he knew that she wouldn't sleep if he wasn't at least in the same room with her. It was a habit that she had developed after what had happened to her. The nightmares coupled with the lack of sleep had damn near driven her insane for the first eight months or so. And even though the incident itself had occurred well over two years ago, she still had trouble some times. So it was a normal reaction now for her to seek him out before she went to sleep.

Being around him was probably the only time she felt safe.

"First we check on Mark. _Then_ we'll take a nap." He said as he turned her and gently pushed her out the door and stepped out behind her and called out to Jean over his shoulder and promised to send Jenna to untie him.


	11. Chapter 11

Stoker and Rimfire were sitting with the guys trying to distract them from what they had been through by talking to them about anything and everything that they could think of but the three rarely responded to them aside from the occasional twitch of their tails or ears. Their eyes and expressions were blank and the two mice couldn't help thinking that staring at the three as they were now, was much like looking at a trio of corpses.

There was no real emotion behind anything, nothing to give away their thoughts or feelings. Although they did sort of notice that the three wounded men kept glancing towards the door almost expectantly.

Stoker would bet that they were looking for Commander Ruby, probably secretly hoping that she would come back if he knew his boys at all. It would seem that _some_ things about his boys hadn't changed much in the past three years. The door slid open and they all looked in that direction and held their breath as a dark haired woman slipped into the room and looked at them all for a second and gave Rimfire and Stoker an nervous looking smile and wave then walked over to the spare bed across the room and started messing around in the cabinets next to it and pulled out some sheets and started to put them on the bed.

Stoker frowned and stood up and walked up behind the female. "Excuse me-" The woman stopped messing with the bed sheets and turned her head and looked at him. "Is everything okay?" He wondered out loud. The only reason he could think of for the spare bed to have sheets put on it was if it was going to be used and he worried that maybe someone had gotten hurt when the ship had tipped earlier.

He hoped that this wasn't the case. After all he and Rimfire owed the humans for finding their captured generals, but accidents _did_ happen. And they sometimes happened more often than he cared to admit. "Everything is fine." The woman said with another nervous smile as she started to mess with the sheets again.

"Are you sure?" Stoker asked his tone concerned.

The woman finished making the bed as the infirmary door opened again and Carbine, the dark haired, and the blond male from before, plus another with rusty colored hair and icy blue eyes all came into the room arguing and carrying the limp and lifeless looking blond Commander.

Stokers fur bristled for a second and he hissed, his expression alarmed as Rimfire quickly got to his feet, his expression equally alarmed as the group continued to argue.

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't pointed that gun at me-" The dark haired male snapped.

"I told you to move over so that I could fly us to the base!" Carbine growled, her tail thrashing a little bit in irritation.

"It wasn't anyone's fault but Jeans." The blond man deadpanned as he shifted his hold on the woman in his arms as the other male growled.

"Fuck you Gabbie. I wouldn't feel the need to try and knock your teeth out every time I saw you if you were less annoying than you are."

"I'm not that annoying."

"Bullshit you cocky little shit! Just because the Commander keeps you around doesn't mean that your not annoying. It just means that your a-"

The blond man turned and pulled a large bowie knife from somewhere and put it against the mans throat before anyone could react and said in a blood chilling tone. "It is _so_ crucial to your future that you do_ not_ finish that sentence. Or_ I will have to kill you_ for slandering our Commander's reputation. Do I make myself clear asshole?"

The rusty haired male gave the blond a dark look then looked at the unconscious woman and gave the man with the knife a sly smirk. "What's wrong? Afraid that I'll hurt your little bitch's feelings?" No sooner than the words had left the guys mouth than Stoker, and Rimfire took a threatening step towards the group intending to tear into the human. But stopped when they saw Throttle, Modo and Vinny out of the corner of their eye, shift themselves towards the edge of their beds with murderous expressions on their faces.

Apparently they didn't like what the male had said about the woman who had saved them either.

Only to stop cold when the blond turned and thrust the woman into the dark haired males arms causing him to stagger back with a startled 'omff' as he tried to keep the woman from slipping from his grasp while the blond turned back and then grabbed the rusty haired male by the throat. And gave them all and apologetic smile.

"Sorry for the drama everyone-" The man said almost cheerfully before turning to the dark haired woman standing next to Stoker and saying in a serious tone. "Jenna, take care of Ruby for me. I have to some business to attend too in the cargo bay."

"Take you're time and remember not to kill him too quickly." Jenna said soberly as she waved at him. He gave her a feral looking smile and dragged the other man out of the room kicking and gasping for air.

Stoker scratched his cheek as the woman clapped her hands together once to get everyone's attention as she cheerfully said. "Mark, bring Commander Ruby over here-" The man made a strangled sound and picked the woman up a little more and carried her over to the bed that Jenna had fixed for Ruby to sleep in earlier and with help from Jenna set Ruby on the bed.

"You three injured guys, settle back, everything is fine-" Throttle and the others looked doubtful that everything was as fine as the woman said it was, but knew that they would be more hindrance than help and so did as she told them. Reluctantly. "And the rest of you please move aside so that I can do my job. Thank you."

Stoker, Carbine and Rimfire moved back a few steps and watched as Jenna leaned over Ruby and started to check her over while asking questions about what happened. Mark told Jenna about Carbine pulling a gun on him and arguing with him about driving the ship, then about how Jean had apparently gotten loose from the ropes that Gabriel had used to tie him up and come looking for the man and had tried to hit him.

Ruby had tried to stop the conflict between the two groups and had gotten shoved back and had lost her footing and hit her head when she had fallen. Naturally, _this_, had stopped the fighting.

Jenna rolled her eyes and muttered something about stupid boys and their male posturing. Honestly would the boys _never_ grow up? "Well, she doesn't seem to have a concussion or anything. She's just unconscious. So no real harm done." Jenna said as she straitened her spine and tugged the covers up over the woman.

"I guess it's a good thing that she has such a thick skull." Mark half joked as Jenna went through the small pack sitting on the table next to the Commanders bed and pulled out a needle and a small vial of clear liquid.

Mark frowned as she fixed the needle and then moved back over to Ruby's side and was about to stick the needle in the woman's arm when Stoker grabbed her wrist and stopped her. Surprising both Jenna and Mark as he asked in a suspicious tone. "What's in the needle?" He knew that it probably wasn't any of his business but he couldn't help but wonder what sort of drug the woman was trying to give to the blond laying on the bed.

"It's something to help her sleep more comfortably." Jenna said as she looked at the dark haired alien male, her expression unreadable. Stoker frowned and glanced at Ruby.

"Is she in pain?"

"Not sure. She's not awake to tell me. But I do know that since Gabriel isn't here at the moment then I should probably _keep_ her asleep."

"Is the reason relevant?"

"It has to do with the time that _she_ spent in captivity." Throttle's voice sounded from behind them. Stoker and the others turned to look at him for a second and noticed that he was sitting on the edge of his bed, his legs dangling over the side. He looked like he was ready to try walking at any second.

Rimfire moved to his side and tried to get him back into bed, but the older male slapped his hands away and growled at him. He did not want _anyone_ touching him unless it was absolutely necessary and right now, it wasn't.

Stoker, Carbine, Rimefire _and_ Mark all got horrified expressions on their faces as they looked at him and Throttle frowned as he looked over the human male. What the hell was he looking so horrified for? She was his Commander, he should know this shit already. Yet he got the nagging feeling that the man wasn't playing around.

Which meant that Ruby was keeping secrets from her team. And that wasn't good.


	12. Chapter 12

Throttle waited until everyone was either gone or asleep before he got out of bed and went to stand over Ruby's bed. It wasn't concern. Or at least that's what he kept telling himself, yet he couldn't go to sleep until he was sure that she was resting peacefully.

It was odd, or at least he thought it was odd, that his long suppressed protective instincts towards anyone but his bros would show themselves _now_. But for some reason that he didn't quite know he felt a peculiar sense of kinsmen ship towards the woman.

Maybe because they were similar. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

Again, he didn't really understand it. But the feeling was_ there_. Even though he wasn't bothering to closely examine it. She twitched in her sleep a small frown marring her perfect angelic features and he found himself lifting his hand to move her hair back from her face, but stopped himself once he realized what he was doing and let his arm drop back to his side as she sighed and turned over onto her side, facing him, and curled up.

He owed this woman _his_ life. He owed her his _bros_ lives.

He gritted his teeth and tried to suppress the tremor that ran down his spine as the realization slowly seeped into his mind filling him with _shock_ and _awe_... And maybe a little more than his fair share of anger.

He was a man, who had been saved by a woman, after all. So being angry _was_ understandable since it was considered a slight against his manhood. Right?

But he wasn't angry for the reasons that one may think. No, he was angry that he and his bros had placed this woman- Their _savior, _a_ female_ in harms way to begin with. Wasn't it their job to protect those weaker than themselves? Wasn't it their job to die for the innocent, and fellow man if the situation called for it?

Wasn't it their job as both soldiers who had lost almost everything- Their homes. Their families. Their friends. Their people.

Their very way of life before the war-to _protect_ whatever they could, no matter what it was? No matter what race, or color, or gender or religion? And yet he and his bros had _allowed_ a defenseless human female, one that had survived her own hellish nightmare; to save them instead of doing what they had sworn to do.

He frowned a little bit. They should have done what they normally did in the presence of those weaker then themselves. They should have pushed her behind them and made a way out of the enemy base for all of them. But instead they had hung back, huddled together like children_ shaking_ slightly with every shot that was fired, and every dying scream that they had heard.

It was pathetic.

And to make matters more complicated, due to the fact that they owed their lives to the woman laying before him-they would have to swear an oath and attach themselves to her side and _serve_ her like slaves if that is what she wanted them to do. Because it was what their race considered _honorable_ when they owed someone a life debt.

It was either that or commit ritual suicide and he for one wasn't going _that_ way. Not after he had spent the last three years in a dirty little cage being cut, beaten, and burned. He wanted to live more now than ever. Even if it was for a different purpose.

He glanced over at his bros, wondering what they would choose. They were both very honor oriented guys, so they may decide to swear themselves into Ruby's service as well. But one never could tell with those two. They may feel that subjecting themselves to the whims of a human female was asking a little too much of them. Not that he'd blame them.

But it would take a while to get back into shape and regain the weight that they had lost and to heal themselves. Mentally as well as emotionally, before they could swear their oath. He looked back at Ruby, and sighed softly before making sure that the covers were pulled up over her shoulder, careful not to actually touch her then bowed a little bit at the waist and spoke to her in his native language.

"_Sleep well my shal-la._" Then turned and meandered his way back to his bed and laid down and was finally able to drift off to sleep without difficulty.

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Quick note-

Hello my kittens, I sort of invented a word here and wanted to tell you what it meant since I wanted it to have duo meanings. However it was my buddy/co conspirator Cha's Aegis, that came up with the duo meaning for the word _Shal-la_.

Shal-la- Means precious one _or_ beloved.

In this case Throttle was calling her his precious one.

I love how flowing the latest chapters are considering the rough intro. The upcoming chapters should be interesting.


	13. Chapter 13

Six hours later the cruiser landed on the martian base, waking the ones who had been asleep (except for Ruby, she was apparently a very deep sleeper) and forcing others to drop whatever they had been doing to pack their things so that they could vacate the ship while Throttle, Modo and Vinny were taken off of the ship by a team of medics that Stoker had called for sometime during the flight.

Everyone- Every man, woman, and child on the base was standing outside watching as the three generals were taken off of the ship, followed by Stoker, Carbine, and Rimfire; who were in turn followed by the male known as Gabriel. Who was carrying the still sleeping Commander in his arms when he walked down the ramp. Followed by the rest of the humans.

Gabriel stopped at the end of the ramp and did a sweep of the sea of faces. Jesus, the entire remainder of the whole frigging martian race must be standing in front of them. Gabriel thought in utter shock and disbelief as he tried to figure out how many people were standing in the cramped area.

He calculated that he was staring at about fifteen thousand people. Noting with a frown that at least three hundred and sixty of those people were women. And at least fifty nine were children under the age of ten._ Where is the rest of them?_ He wondered, feeling a little bit alarmed. Were they out in the trenches or something? This really couldn't be _all_ that was left of their race was it?

"Hey, Gabriel! Come on!" Jenna's voice called out to him, jarring him out of his thoughts enough to get him to start walking again until he reached the rest of them, ignoring the curious stares that he and his sister were getting from the people as he walked.

Stoker and the others waited for him to catch up, a little worried that if they didn't wait for him that he might get lost or ambushed by some of the soldiers who were a mite curious about him, before they started walking again. "Commander Stoker-" Gabriel started to ask the dark haired alien male about the number of people on the base but stopped. He would be prying. And prying is rude. So he changed tactics a little bit as Stoker gave him his full attention. "While we're here, is there anything that we might be able to help you with?"

Stoker looked the human over. He seemed to be asking on behalf of his sleeping Commander, but if Stoker talked to him about anything without permission from the woman, it could cause trouble. So for now he gave the young man an indulgent smile and shook his head. "No. You're here as our guests. Not as fresh blood for our war." Stoker said evenly.

"That's all well and good, but I prefer to be useful." Gabriel said seriously. Stokers lips twitched a little bit in amusement.

"If you really prefer to be useful, you could volunteer yourself for the breeding program." He'd meant it as a joke, but when he looked at the man to gauge his reaction he noticed a spark of something more than interest in the human's features. Pain perhaps?

"Do you need children that badly?"

"Yes. But we need _women_ more than children right now." Because the males of their race were starting to lose hope that they would ever have a mate and young. And so, they were throwing their lives away in the trenches.

Gabriel made a humming sound but said nothing as he followed the group into the base, making sure to hang back a little bit from the others so that he could look around and observe the interactions.

He suddenly felt very anxious about being in a place where the men outnumbered him a _gazillion_ to _one_. Especially if they needed women as desperately as Stoker had said.

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Being back on the base was nostalgic for the three generals as the nurses fussed over them in the infirmary, occasionally earning low growls of irritation from the three as they tried to hold on tightly to their tempers. On some level they knew that the nurses were just trying to help, just like they had known that the human woman, Jenna, had been trying to help; but it didn't stop them from _disliking_ being poked and prodded by strangers.

They'd been poked and prodded enough to last a bloody lifetime.

But that wasn't the only reason for their irritation. The other reason was that they felt uncomfortable being separated from Ruby, whom they had started to think of as _their_ human on some primitive level. Not just because she had saved them. But because she was _one_ of them.

A fellow survivor.

And they felt uncomfortable not knowing where she was or if she was alright. Vinny was about to demand to know where the human female was when the blond guy from before walked into the infirmary carrying the woman.

"Excuse me. But would it be okay if I left this one here until our rooms are assigned to us or she wakes up?" One of the nurses walked over to him and looked Ruby over.

"What's wrong with her?" She asked curiously as she grasped Ruby's arm, lifted it a little bit and let go and watched her arm drop back into place limply. Gabriel frowned at the alien and took an small step back when the nurse started to reach for his sister. He wasn't sure what the alien woman was thinking, but the last thing his sister needed was to be poked and prodded while she was trying to rest.

He'd let the nurse take Ruby's pulse and listen to her heart if she wanted, but she wasn't giving her any shots or anything. Especially when she didn't know anything about Ruby. "Severe exhaustion." He wasn't going to mention the small bump on Ruby's head. It might give the little (_six foot four inch_) mousy some funny ideas about drilling holes in his sisters head or something.

The mouse looked at him strangely as she tilted her head to the side. "Very well. Place her in one of the beds over there." The alien said as she pointed to several free beds four beds down from the three guys that they had saved.

Gabriel gave the woman a small smile and walked over to the first bed and carefully laid Ruby down on it and smiled a little bit as she automatically curled up on her side like she always did. He kissed her on the cheek then pulled the covers up over her then straitened his spine and walked back towards the door, pausing briefly to thank the nurse before walking on missing the way the nurse made a clucking sound with her tongue as she slowly shook her head.

"What a waste." She said more to herself than anyone else while thinking that the human female would have made a wonderful mother to a martian child.


	14. Chapter 14

I would love to get at least 20 reviews, but I guess I'll make due with what I've got.

I'm still needing constructive criticism so that I can improve though.

Again, it was Cha's Aegis who came up with the definition of the word that I invented. And again, I thank her.

Cha, you're _awesome_ to put up with my neediness.

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Forty five minutes later-

Throttle pushed himself upright on his bed and looked towards Ruby and frowned. He wanted to check on her. Or at the very least move her closer to them, but he didn't dare move to go do just that because Vinny and Modo were still awake and he didn't want to bother them with anything concerning the oath just yet.

He was worried that they might react badly to the fact that they owed a life debt and were honor bound to serve the woman. He sighed and started to lay back down when he turned his head to look at his bros and noticed that they were both sitting up a little bit watching him.

"Sorry. Can't sleep." He said lamely as he laid back down and tried to get comfortable, adjusting the thin blanket over his legs and lay still for a second.

It was more difficult than he remembered, the mattress under him was too soft, he squirmed in an effort to get comfortable. But after he had spent the past three years sleeping on cold hard stone and iron, the softness under him felt strangely foreign to him.

And he was sort of cold too since he was wearing nothing but a pair of clean boxers that one of the human males had been kind enough to let him borrow. And though he was grateful to be clean of the dirt and grime and blood, and to finally be in something clean- For some odd reason he still felt so oddly uncomfortable. He pushed himself upright again and again his bros did the same, apparently more in tune with him than he had thought, they picked up on his anxiousness and discomfort so _easily_.

Or maybe they picked up on those things because they felt them too. He didn't know. He didn't bother asking.

Modo pushed himself completely upright and slowly pushed the covers back and set his feet on the floor. "Modo?"

The elder looked at the tan furred male and stood up then turned and put his hands against the side of the bed and _pushed_ the bed until it was up against Throttles then moved out of the way and climbed back into his bed while Vinny did the same with his bed.

They'd slept side by side for the past three years. Another night shouldn't matter. And if anyone had a problem with their deeply rooted co dependence, they'd knock their teeth out... Or something. Throttle shifted in his bed and moved closer to Modo. Not so close that they were touching or anything, after all it was weird to spoon with a guy.

Especially if you thought of him as your brother.

He just got close enough to reach out and touch his cheek or something if he had nightmares and needed the contact to assure himself that Modo and Vinny were alive. "Better?" Modo asked in a hushed tone. Throttle nodded his head and sighed tiredly.

This was much better. Maybe now he'd be able to sleep more than two hours. Modo gave him a strange look. He looked like he had something on his mind too. Maybe he was wondering what had him so tied up in knots. He opened his mouth to say something but Vinny asked him first. "_Throttle, what's been bugging you?_"

Throttle was tempted to lie. But only for a second before deciding to come clean about the oath that they owed Ruby. "I was...thinking." Throttle said quietly, his tone no louder than Vinny's now that his voice was damaged.

"About what?" Modo asked curiously.

"We were saved by the human sleeping on the bed over there-"

"Yeah-"

"_We know. We were there too. Remember?_"

Throttle closed his eyes and waited for his round about explanation and it's meaning to sink in for them since he doubted that they had thought anything at all about the possibility of owing a life debt.

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Gabriel was walking behind... Rimfire? Towards the bunkers where the people on base lived. Rimfire had explained that his bunker wouldn't be much. Just the standard. One slightly spacious room, a small kitchen (with a fridge, sink, dishes and stove) and a bathroom. There was a small closet where he could hang his clothes up, a small table to eat at if he wanted, a small washer and dryer could be found under the counter in the kitchen.

All in all it sounded like a nice place.

And he felt a little bit excited that he would be staying in such a place, the thought of tinkering with advanced technology was always an exciting prospect to him, and he did_ love_ his tinkering.

He'd once sat in front of a dishwasher and played with the buttons for an entire month when he was seven, before his mom had finally got tired of him being under foot and kicked him out of the house. Threatening to blister his ass if he didn't make some damn friends.

Speaking of... He needed to find a way to call him mom and let her know that he was okay since he had just up and left without warning.

They were more than half way down the narrow hallway to the bunkers when Commander Stoker appeared out of nowhere startling the blond slightly. "Hello." Stoker said cheerfully while Gabriel paused in mid step and turned this way and that trying to figure out where the hell the alien had come from (honestly he hadn't even heard his footsteps!) and flushed a little bit when Rimfire and Stoker both stopped walking and turned to watch him for a moment before giving him a couple of devious grins.

Ah. So that's how they were going to be.

Well, whatever. He could be a secretive bastard too. "Were you waiting to ambush me or something?" Gabriel asked in a wary tone as he started walking again. The Commander snickered while Rimfire stifled his laughter behind one hand.

"No. I just thought it would be funny to sneak up on you." Stoker said with a diabolical grin. Gabriel grunted but didn't say anything more. He knew enough about the man already to know his personality type. He hadn't snuck up behind him just for fun, he wanted something. Or at the very least to talk about something.

And that was fine. Gabriel had no problem talking to the alien if something was on his mind. "Is there something that you needed sir?" Gabriel finally asked as Rimfire brushed past him and took the front again since he didn't know where he was going.

Stoker looked at him for a second his gaze guarded. "How is Commander Ruby?"

"Still sound asleep. She'll sleep for the rest of the day, maybe the night too. Then she'll get up tomorrow and be a pain in everyone's ass just like she usually is."

"Really?" Stoker asked in a disbelieving tone.

Gabriel snickered. _Oh_ the stories he could tell. But not today. "Nah, truth of the matter is that once Ruby's out of her uniform her entire personality changes. No doubt she'll see our time here as a sort of vacation."

"She sounds very adaptable-" _She must have learned to adapt quickly when she was being held prisoner_. Stoker thought before asking. "Would you mind if I hung out with you a little bit and talked to you for a while? Before my subordinates can once again bury me under a ton of paper work."

"Nah. I don't mind." It was the least he could do since they were going to let him stay in a nice bunker with alien technology.

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Vinny and Modo were sitting up in bed now, their eyes wide, their expressions shocked/stunned. A life debt. They had a life debt.

The two looked over at the human female sleeping so soundly a few beds down and mentally went over everything that had happened until now starting from the day they were pulled out of their cage and felt the need to swear.

_Violently._

Jesus-fucking-Christ. They had gone out of the frying pan and into the fire. On one hand if they _did_ swear an oath, they would be pledging their lives, their bodies, their souls. Their very _futures_. To a fragile human female.

And on the other hand, if they didn't swear an oath- They would be considered without honor by their fellow martian, and expected to commit ritual suicide. It didn't matter if they had survived torture, or if they were _damaged_, or even _ruined_. They would still be expected to serve the woman like slaves if that was what she wished of them.

They weren't sure they could do it.

Not at the moment anyways.

They still had no idea what sort of person Ruby was. Just that she understood them more than others because they were similar. Survivors of the same, yet different hells. They both looked at Throttle who was now laying on his side facing them, one hand half covering his face, a sliver of scarlet staring back at them. Gauging their reactions. "Would you do it?" Modo suddenly asked, his anxiousness finally showing in his expression.

Throttle didn't even hesitate. He nodded his head. He knew that they didn't really have a choice. It was either swear the oath, or death. And he for one hadn't gone through hell and lived just to have his life ended here.

He still had a lot that he wanted to do with his life and though he'd swear the oath and become Ruby's _nag-la-rou, _hopefully she would be kind enough to work with him on everything else. Modo and Vinny stared at him for a second with stunned expressions on their faces.

There had been no hesitation in their bro. No sense of doubt (at least none that he was showing). He must feel totally confident in his ability to serve as a _nag-la-rou_, or he wouldn't have answered them without thinking about his answer for a good long while first.

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_Nag-la-rou_ means several different things.

Guardian.

And Knight.

A _nag-la-rou's_ sole purpose from the time they make their oath is to _serve_ and _protect_ the one that they have made an oath too until the day that they die.

I'll write more about how a _nag-la-rou_ conducts themselves, and what he does as time passes. I'll also write about how the oath ceremony goes too.


	15. Chapter 15

Okay- I'm going to address a few things before I let you read this chapter.

First of all I've had someone ask me about the information that Throttle gave up to save Modo's life. And all I can say is do you really think that he would tell the enemy something that could endanger his comrades in arms?

Especially after how many of them had died to protect the rest of the species.

Second of all- Gabriel and Ruby are hiding things from the team. (like their relationship as siblings and such) There are _reasons_ behind this. I'm just not going into it right now. I plan to come clean about it a little later on.

Third of all- Someone asked me why Jean is such a prick.

Well, the truth is, he isn't. He's actually a lot like Gabriel. His prickish behavior is a way for him to push people away before they can reject him. The reason for this is because he served during the gulf war and a bunch of his friends, people that he had known since he was a kid, died.

So his prickish behavior is a defense mechanism.

I actually plan to expose the softer side of his personality a little later on. So give me time.

Four- Ruby's past... It's fairly dark and will make her seem more ruthless and cold blooded than she actually is. It was also very _traumatizing_. Which is why she still has nightmares and relies on Gabriel so much.

He was the only one who stood by her when she needed the support.

Five- Yes. Gabriel and Ruby really are Charlie's nephew and niece.

Everything will be addressed in time, so just hang in there okay.

Enjoy.

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A month later-

It happened so suddenly, like most things often did. And just like every other time before when Gabriel was away.

She had been totally unprepared for the nightmares and had woken up tangled in her bed sheets. Sweating, shaking and _crying_ uncontrollably and had tried to untangle herself from the sheets so that she could get up when her stomach had lurched dangerously.

It had been days since she had had a decent night's rest and she was so tired that she had spent the entire day before today, laying in her bed staring at the ceiling. Trying to will herself to sleep, but not getting anywhere.

It took her longer than she would have liked to untangle herself, but at least she hadn't puked all over the bed. But she hadn't been able to close her eyes again either and so had gotten up and gone about her morning routines as usual hoping that a sense of normalcy would calm her.

She showered, then got dressed in an off emerald green moon silk (she still hadn't a frigging clue why the material was called moon silk) dress that had been given to her by Commander Stoker's niece, Carbine, and took the time to braid her hair while she looked herself over in the small mirror hanging in the bathroom above the sink.

She might have looked _nice_, or even _pretty_ in the soft, clingy ankle length dress _if_ she had somehow managed to get more than an hour in a half of sleep, in the past five days. She paced around her room for an hour or so then at nine something left her room to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat, hoping that maybe if she could eat something she'd be able to sleep once she got back to her room.

She walked into the room and paused just inside the door way, noting that there was maybe six or seven people already in there eating and sighed tiredly and checked to make sure that there wasn't a line then grabbed a tray and made her way over to the little buffet and fixed a plate for herself and grabbed two drinks. One juice and one synthetic milk. And made her way over to the farthest table and sat down at the empty table.

She picked up her fork and tried to eat something, but after a few minutes gave up. Her stomach was still feeling a little off from the nightmare. She couldn't believe that she _still_ saw their pain glazed eyes staring up at her pleadingly, even after two years. She shook her head and _ruthlessly_ pushed all thoughts of the nightmare aside.

She didn't have a choice. If she continued to dwell on it she's have a panic attack or break down of some sort and she couldn't afford to lose her mind now.

Not while her brother was away and she had no one to prevent her from hurting herself if it got really bad. She sighed again as she pushed the tray aside and laid her head down on the table and closed her eyes.

She was so tired that she just couldn't fight off the floaty feeling that she sometimes got when she started to doze off.

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Vinny, Throttle and Modo walked down the hall to the cafeteria from the infirmary feeling more than a little happy with the way that their health was progressing. The past month of rest and physical therapy had been good for them.

They were starting to _look_ and _feel_ like their old selves again, they had regained the weight and muscle that they had lost. They're wounds were completely healed. Everything was going good, although their co-dependence and some of they're other habits from when they were captured remained.

Like their need to sleep close to one another.

They walked into the room and looked around noting that there were several people in the room already, and grabbed a couple of trays and went to get some food. They fixed three plates each and grabbed two drinks then turned to find themselves a table to sit at and noticed the small blond headed figure in a green outfit and headed over to the farthest table to see who it was. They were just a little startled to see that the person laying their head on the table was Ruby.

Their _shal-la_. Modo and Vinny set their trays down on the opposite side of the table across from the human woman while Throttle shifted his hold on his tray and reached out and gently tapped the woman on the shoulder.

She jerked and lifted her head and blinked up at him. "Wha?" She asked unintelligibly as he looked her over and frowned._ When was the last time she had slept?_ He wondered as he noted the dark circles under her eyes.

It had obviously been a while if the bruise like smudges were any indication at all. She blinked again and looked around, finally noticing Modo and Vinny. "Are you okay _shal-la_?" Throttle asked, using the martian term for precious without realizing it. Ruby blinked at him and nodded her head as she flushed a little bit and lifted her hands to rub her eyes for a second before realizing that she might be in his way.

"I'm fine..." She said tiredly as she started to get up and grab her tray, obviously a little bit embarrassed that someone had caught her trying to get some sleep in such an open area. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take up room or-"

"There's nothing to apologize for _shal-la_. You're weary and you should feel free to rest where ever your comfortable." Throttle said gently as he reached out and grasped her wrist in a gentle yet surprisingly strong grip stopping her from moving away from the table. And them.

Ruby stared at him for a second, distantly wondering if it was really okay for her to rest in such an open area with so many people. But for some reason she didn't really understand she trusted these three enough to try. She nodded her head slightly and set her tray back down and then re took her seat. Throttle let go of her and moved around her to the seat next to her and sat down as she folded her arms on the table and laid her head back down and a few minutes later was out cold.

Modo craned his neck a little bit and did a quick check taking note of her breathing patterns before leaning back a little bit and chuckling softly, though not really in amusement. This woman who was to be their _shal-la_- Was far, far, _far_ too trusting to have fallen asleep in such an open area with so many of their males present.

Didn't she know that the males of their race were notorious for _kidnapping_ females (even ones from other planets) to mate with now that their species was going extinct? From the way she was sleeping he'd guess she didn't have a clue. Or maybe she just didn't consider the un-mated males of their race a threat to her.

Whatever her reason it was such an _insulting_ thought that he almost grabbed her and ran.

The need to prove a point and make her more_ aware_ of their races circumstances so that she could better protect herself from unwanted suitors, made his palms itch and his tail twitch. He curbed the need though by sheer force of will while busying himself with the food on his plate in an effort to distract himself before he looked at her again and frowned for a second.

Damn. He was bothered by her trust when under normal circumstances he would have been flattered. _How bothersome._

"So this is the woman that we owe-" Modo said thoughtfully as he tore a piece of bread in half and took a bite. She didn't look like much. But then human women rarely did look like much. They were always so damn small, so frigging delicate.

He often felt like Frankenstein when he was around them.

Don't get him wrong, they _were_ nice. And quite lovely, many of them bordering on exotically beautiful in looks. Charlie had been one of those types. Which was probably why Vinny had been so enamored with her.

This woman, while beautiful and a soldier, was still unknown to him. So he didn't think much of her at the moment. But he understood Throttle well enough. He was the most honorable man he knew aside from Vinny. So he could understand why he had made up his mind to make the oath to the woman and become her _nag-la-rou_.

"Still on the fence about what you're going to do?" Throttle asked, pulling the elder man from his thoughts.

Modo nodded his head before Vinny said, "_I'll take the oath_." Both Throttle and Modo looked at the younger man as he picked up his drink and took a sip.

"Are you sure?" Modo asked curiously. Vinny nodded his head, he'd been thinking about this off and on for the past month. Throttle was right, they owed the woman a life debt and they were honor bound to repay it even if it took their entire lives.

Vinny shrugged his shoulders. "_She doesn't seem like a bad person._"

"She doesn't_ seem_ to have common sense." Modo said as he tapped his metal fingers on the table. Across from him the girl jerked her head up and growled something under her breath as her hand shot out and grabbed his fingers in a tight grip, stilling them, and startling Modo and Vinny a little bit.

Both males blinked and looked at her as she put her head back down and exchanged slightly disgruntled/nervous looks. They hadn't known that a human's reflexes were that fast...

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Stoker stormed out of his superior's office, slamming the door behind him so hard that the walls shook a little bit.

How dare he!

How dare he (Wrath) order him to detain the human females and force the males back through the transporter to Earth. How dare they seek to rip those_ innocent_ (delightful and spunky) girls from the only home that they had ever known, and force them into the breeding program against their will!

They weren't monsters dammit!

If it wasn't for them his boys never would have been brought home. He _owed_ them. It might not be a life debt, but dammit he owed them for saving his boys and by god he'd protect them any way that he could.

Which was why he had mentioned to Wrath that Throttle, Vinny and Modo owed the woman Commander a life debt. He had hoped to give his boys a little more time to adjust to being free again, but being called to Wrath's office today had ruined _everything_. But what other choice did he have but to mention the life debt?

At the moment it was the only thing protecting the girls. And the moment his boys decided that they would rather die than live for the sake of a human woman... What would he do then? He growled in frustration and slammed his metal tail into the wall, digging the sharp edge into the softer metal, splitting it open with a grinding shriek like he usually did when he was in a bad mood.

He didn't care if it was structural damage to the base. He didn't care if he got screamed at for it later on.

He was far too busy imagining the grinding metal splitting open under the pressure of his tail, was Wrath's neck. It made him feel batter to imagine that he could kill the man for his foolishness, but not by much.

He made another frustrated sound and ran his fingers through his dark hair and wished that he hadn't agreed to help Gabriel go back to Earth to contact his family and tie up a few loose ends. He needed to talk with the human _desperately_ and warn him. And mentioning anything of this to Commander Ruby, would just upset the girl and make her even more restless than she already was with Gabriel's absence.

And he had promised the human male that he wouldn't upset her or make her more restless in any way until he came back. Until then he was left to run around pulling his hair out in frustration. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. _Dammit! _

He needed to do something until Gabriel came back. But what?

_What?  
><em>

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Throttle finished eating and pushed his tray away and glanced down at Ruby as Vinny argued the pros and cons of swearing the oath to the human girl while Throttle studied her features a little. She looked the way that he remembered when they had first met. Her hair was a bit longer, her clothes were different, and her face was a little less pale. But all in all she looked the same.

Vinny and Modo wrapped their argument up with Modo admitting defeat and snapping at the white furred youngster. "Fine! I get it! I'll take the damn oath too! But I don't have to frigging _like_ it!"

Vinny gave the elder a sly smirk, apparently happy that he still had the ability to talk circles around the elder and confuse him enogh to get him to bend to his will.

Throttle shook his head and was about to tell Vinny to back off before Modo decided to punch him. When Ruby made a low distressed sound next to him and stirred slightly, effectively silencing the other two as they turned their heads to look at her as she whimpered and tightened her grip on Modo's fingers.

The elder frowned a little bit as Throttle reached out and gently pried her fingers from his mechanical ones, and carefully pulled her against his side. Then shifted slightly so that he could slip an arm around her, just under her breasts; and lifted her up a little bit and dragged her into his lap.

And then settled her back against his chest.

Ruby made another small sound of distress and turned herself slightly in his arms and buried her face against his shoulder and sighed as he tightened his grip on her a little bit. "Bro?"

"She's having a nightmare-" Throttle said gently, partially explaining why he had dragged the woman into his lap. Modo got an 'Oh' expression on his face but said nothing as Throttle shifted again and slipped his free arm under Ruby's legs and got up out of his seat. "Are you guys ready to go?"

Vinny got to his feet and grabbed a few things off of Ruby's tray and handed them to Modo who sighed and stood up. "I guess we're taking the girl with us."

"Yes."

Modo sighed again. "What are we supposed to do with her?"

"Nothing. We just go about our business and let her rest until she wakes up."

"And then what do we do with her?" Modo asked as Throttle cradled the woman against him like he would a child and brushed by him.

"_Then we can get to know her._" Vinny said as if it was the most logical conclusion in the world. And maybe it was. Modo didn't really think it was a good idea, but whatever. He didn't feel like arguing with anyone anymore.


	16. Chapter 16

The guys played cards in their bunker for a majority of the day after returning to their room. Trying to be quiet so that the woman laying on the mattress that they had dragged to the middle of the floor, could sleep peacefully. Every now and then the woman would twitch, or make a small sound. Drawing their attention away from their cards.

The day progressed slowly, going from morning to noon at a snails pace and by that time they were growing a little bored with the game and set their cards aside so that they could work on the report that they were supposed to be filing about their capture and everything else.

Unfortunately every time the took out the papers and looked at them, they started to feel sick at their stomachs, their hands would start shaking and they would be forced to put the reports away and try to occupy their time doing something else.

The only problem was that they had only a few things to truly occupy their minds. Some games that Charlie had given to them when they had been back on earth. Some weights to help them get back into shape...

And that was really about it aside from the music, but they couldn't touch it because the woman was sleeping. Vinny walked over to the small shelf hanging over the empty bed frame and glanced down at Ruby and frowned a little bit. She'd been twitching for the past ten minutes and he couldn't help but wonder what she was dreaming about to cause her to twitch like that.

Throttle must have noticed her twitching too. Because one second he was looking over the games that Charlie had given to them in an effort to find something to do and the next he was on his knees on the mattress, one hand going to her shoulder causing her to make a keening sound and jerk her entire body under his hand and open her eyes. "Wha?"

"She seems to say that a lot." Modo said in a bemused tone.

"_You'd probably say that a lot too if you're brain was stuck in neutral_." Vinny rasped in a dry tone. Modo gave the younger man an indulgent smile. The kind that scared Vinny into shutting up rather abruptly because it always gave him the same impression that a shark might give to a diver right before it took a great big _bite_.

It was a calm before the storm sort of look. And it freaked him out.

"I'm sure your right." Modo said in the same bemused tone as Ruby slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes before looking up again and frowning and saying.

"You're the guys that my team and I pulled from that base-"

Throttle and Vinny looked surprised while Modo kept his expression blank. "_You remember us?_" Vinny asked in a slightly shocked tone.

"Of course I do. The three of you are sort of hard to forget-" She said as she stifled a yawn behind her hand. Then looked around the room and frowned again and asked in a slightly alarmed tone. "Uh... Where are we?" She wasn't in the same room that she had fallen asleep in and wanted to know where she was before she started to freak out on them.

"Our room. You were sleeping pretty soundly so we brought you with us because we thought that you'd rest better in a bed. It's more comfortable and easier on your back. That and we didn't know where your room was." Modo supplied helpfully, hoping to ease her worried mind a little bit. He didn't want to deal with a hysterical woman.

They cried.

"Ah, I see..." Was all that she said as she pushed the covers back a little bit and moved to get off of the mattress. She felt a little bit weird about sleeping in a strangers bed and sort of felt the need to thank them for being so considerate and run like hell. "Well, thank you for lending me your bed. Sorry to be such a pain. I should probably go now." She said with an awkward smile as she stood up.

"_You don't have to rush off Commander. We were wanting to sit down and talk to you for a little bit anyways-_" Vinny said as he walked around her, his arm brushing against hers, causing her to jump and flush a little bit as he walked over to the table where the game Throttle had picked out for them to play sat and picked it up. "_Wanna sit down and play with us?_ _It will give us a chance to get to know our savior a little better. If you've the time to spare that is." _Vinny said with a small smile that he hoped made him seem like he just wanted to have a harmless talk with her.

She looked at him then at the door, then at him again and chewed on her bottom lip, her expression just a little bit anxious. She really was nervous around them. Or maybe she was simply nervous because she was in an unfamiliar room with them. After a few minutes of silently debating with herself she gave a curt nod and walked over to the table and grabbed a seat. "I can give you three rounds. I should leave after that."


	17. Chapter 17

The name of the game that they had all sat down to play, was called Secrets. Which was a weirdly written version of Truth or Dare meant to help others root out certain things about the player's life. And as Vinny pulled the first question card from the little stack, Ruby started to get a peculiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the white furred alien looked at her and smiled cheerfully. "_Okay, first question. What's you're full name?_"

"Ruby Bell."

_"No middle name?" _Vinny asked curiously as Ruby slowly shook her head no.

"No. My parents weren't feeling very inventive." Vinny made a soft humming sound and then put the card down and handed the dice to Throttle who rolled them and flashed a quick, devious grin at her and picked up a card and asked.

"Have you ever done anything stupid on a dare?"

"Yes." Ruby said as she vaguely recalled one of her high school friends daring her to streak through the school cafeteria yelling, 'A bird took my penis'. The experience hadn't ended well for her.

"Are you going to tell us about it?"

"Not if I can avoid it. No." Ruby said quickly. She was not telling them anything about that! She'd die of embarrassment if she did. Throttle snickered and set the card aside.

"You know if you don't tell us, we'll have to penalize you."

"I do _not_ care. I'm taking all knowledge of that dare with me to the grave." Ruby said without thinking. It never even crossed her mind that since they were playing a sort of twisted Truth or Dare game, that they could ask her do something embarrassing.

At least it didn't occur to her at first.

It _did_ however occur to her when Throttle stood up and placed one of his hands flat on the table and leaned over and before she could react hooked the other around her nape and pressed his lips against hers in a soft lingering kiss that made her heart stutter in her chest. There was no real feeling behind it. No desire, no need, no emotion what so ever. Yet he carried through with the action as if there was nothing wrong with it.

He let her go after a second or so and sat back down while she flushed a vivid shade of pink and stared at him with a startled expression on her pretty face as he handed the dice to Modo who took one look at her face and said in a half teasing tone.

"You seem pretty shocked. Was that your first kiss?"

Ruby's face darkened a little bit and she nodded her head mutely catching the three men by surprise with her answer.

"_No way._" Vinny said in a scandalized tone, shocked from the top of his head to the very tips of his toes.

"Seriously?" Modo asked sounding just as shocked as Ruby felt. Ruby nodded her head again, unsure of how to react to what Throttle had done.

What was wrong with the human males that they ignored someone as pretty as Ruby? The three males wondered as Modo rolled the dice and picked up a card and looked over the question and nearly blushed himself. _What is your dirtiest sex-capade?_ Just didn't seem like the sort of question one asked a young woman who had never been kissed before. Unless that was just what she was into.

Every one had fetishes after all.

"Um..." He didn't want to ask the woman this question so instead he set the card aside and picked a safer subject. "Weight?" Yet the moment the word left his lips, he cringed and waited for her to explode into feminine outrage. And was pleasantly surprised to find that Ruby had no problem with telling them her weight.

In fact she didn't even seem offended.

"One twenty five." Ruby answered when she was finally able to find her voice again. Modo nodded his head and handed her the dice hoping that she would draw a decent card so that she could get some good info on them. After all this game was all about sharing info, however the card she drew asked their favorite color instead of something good.

And though Modo was sure that Vinny and Throttle were a mite disappointed, but they answered anyways and the game progressed. One round slipped by and the only ones getting information were them. And Throttle and Modo were starting to think that Vinny had messed with the cards when he had supposed to have been shuffling them.

They found out her favorite past time, her favorite foods, what she liked to do when she wasn't working-

She had never been in love.

Never dated.

And up until a short while ago had never been kissed either.

Which was weird considering that she was a healthy hot blooded woman, but they refused to distract themselves with the details at the moment.

She was from a military family. Both of her parents were former soldiers. She'd had two siblings once upon a time, but one of them had died as a child due to illness. Leaving her with an older brother whom had doted on her and taken care of her more than her parents had.

She'd moved in with her brother when she was sixteen (she left out the reason why).

Had graduated from high school as Valedictorian when she was eighteen and had decided to go into the military too (not because it was what her parents had wanted, but because she had wanted too) to be closer to her brother and make sure that he always came home safely.

She had a little bit of a ditsy side. Liked jokes and could laugh at almost anything no matter how dark.

By the time the third round came the only things that Ruby had learned about them aside from their names, favorite colors, and hobbies. Was their size. Not pant size mind you, but they're actual honest to god size.

All of them had been embarrassed by the question on the card, and had pondered for a little bit if the person who had invented the game had even been _sane_. Yet they had once again answered the question.

"_Ten inches._"

"Ten in a half."

"Eleven." Modo said as he flushed under his fur, he'd always had a sort of complex about his size. Throttle and Vinny both turned their heads to look at him while Ruby made a whimpering sound and hid her face. She'd probably want to quit the game after this question, and that was fine with the guys. They were all feeling rather _mortified_ and _inadequate_ at the moment. So maybe stopping the game was for the best.

Ruby couldn't believe the weird turn the game had taken after the first two rounds and as soon as that last question was answered she quickly decided that it was time to go. "Well, it was fun exchanging...uh...blackmail material with you guys. But I think I should go now. I'm feeling a little-"

"Humiliated." Modo supplied helpfully.

"Sure let's go with that." Ruby said as she got up. The three pushed back from the table and stood up too.

"Well it was nice to...uh...play with-"

"Please don't finish that sentence." Ruby deadpanned as she walked over to the door and pushed the button on the wall next to the door to open it.

"See you around _shal-la_." Throttle said close to her ear, causing her to jump a little bit and scramble back out of the bunker door. Her back hit the wall opposite the door and she caught the faint smile curving the alien's lips as scarlet eyes locked with her own a second before the door closed.

What the hell had that been about?

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The second the door closed Throttle banged his head on the door, the sound of his skull making contact causing a nice clanging sound. He couldn't believe that he had stolen a kiss from someone who had never been kissed before.

What the hell was wrong with human males that they would pass up the chance to cozy up to a girl like Ruby? Were they _insane_? Blind? Dumb maybe?

"Vinny, did you mess with the cards when you were supposed to shuffle them?" Modo asked curiously. Vinny gave him a nervous look and took an quick step back.

"_Maybe. I didn't expect the questions to get so personal. Sorry_." Vinny said as Modo cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"Enough, both of you. We need to think about how to proceed from here." Throttle finally said as he moved away from the door.


	18. Chapter 18

Ruby didn't make it back to her room as quickly as she thought she would after leaving the guys bunker because she ended up getting lost.

Which was so damn irritating because she didn't know which way to go to get back to the more familiar area of the base where her room was located. And to make things worse, she was on a time limit because she had ordered Jenna, Mark and Jean to meet up with her today in the cafeteria at five thirty.

It was currently four forty five and she was getting more and more lost with every step she took. She passed an open door to a room where several martian soldiers were hanging out talking and wondered idly if she could get one of them to help her.

"Do you need help with something miss?" One of the men asked her as he tapped his two friends on the shoulders and pointed to her as she paused just outside of the door and looked at them almost nervously. He sounded polite enough. So maybe he would be willing to help her find her way.

"Uh...yeah. I'm sort of lost. Would you mind pointing me in the general direction of the cafeteria?" She asked with an awkward smile. The men studied her for a second then one of them asked.

"Are you on your way to meet your mate or lover?" Ruby blinked and flushed a little bit. That seemed like a rather invasive question to ask a total stranger, but then again the questions from the game that she had played earlier were almost as bad.

"No actually. I don't have a mate or lover."

The three men looked a little surprised, then gave her a series of happy smiles that sent off warning bells in her mind. "Well, in that case... Why don't you hang out with us for a little while?" Ruby took an involuntary step back as the three moved towards the door and looked around anxiously as two of them grabbed her.

Had she just stumbled across the martian equivalent of rapists?

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Modo kept looking at the clock and thinning his lips and wondering when Throttle and Vinny were going to finally realize that they had already fucked up with their _shal-la_ by allowing her to leave their room without warning her of the _perils_ of walking alone with so many un-mated males around or _adequate_ protection.

"Uh, Throttle-" Modo started to say, but was cut off as Throttle picked up one of the game cards and looked at it with a curious expression on his face and said. "Well that was a huge waste of time."

"_Not true. We learned some important stuff._" Vinny argued.

"In what way is humiliating our _shal-la_ with obscene questions, considered important?" Throttle asked in a dangerously low tone. His expression dark.

"_Not all of the questions were obscene. And if you had paid attention in school when we were younger then you'd know that as nag-la-rou's, we have to know our sha-la's body as well as her personality. If our sha-la is as innocent as she says she is, not that I doubt her much after the way she reacted to your little kiss; then she should be fairly easy to please regardless of what she asks us to do. Knowing that she's untouched makes things a little easier on us. Because we know what to expect during the second part of the oath ceremony_."

"You mean aside from her being scared and nervous as hell?"

"_Being nervous is a natural response when an untouched woman takes a man or three to her bed_." Vinny said with a small shrug before asking. "_So what do we do next?_"

"A good question... We could make a formal apology to her. For embarrassing her."

Again Vinny shrugged. Throttle looked at him like he'd like to smack him, then glanced over at Modo who was being eerily quiet about this whole mess.

Throttle sighed, "Or we can observe our _shal-la_ a little more closely-" Again Modo thinned his lips and looked at the clock. The woman could be in trouble at this very moment, but unless he could get a word in inch wise to remind his bros of this, then she'd have to wait until things sunk in on their own.

"At least until we get a better feel for her personality." Throttle continued, his mind abuzz with so many different things that he couldn't keep track of it all. He kept getting the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something, but couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Modo looked at the clock again and sighed softly and hoped that his bros would catch on quickly. After all they couldn't repay their life debt if the woman wound up mated to someone that she despised.

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Rimfire was on his way to the cafeteria to get something to eat since he had been in meetings all day and paused when he heard the distinctly familiar voice of Commander Ruby growling at someone to let her go. He tilted his head a little bit to the left and wondered if he had imagined the sound of her voice and was about to move on when he heard her voice again. This time louder and madder sounding.

"I swear to god if you don't let go of me- I'm going to hurt you _so_ badly." There was the sound of masculine laughter and Rimfire made a hissing sound and turned on his heel and hurried down the hall in the opposite direction from where he had been going and came up on a group of three males, two of them holding onto the human Commander to keep her from running while they dragged her down the hall.

_Son of a bitch-_ Rimfire thought angrily as he started to close in on them while one of the males let go of the woman so that he could play with her hair. Finding the color and feel of the pale silken strands fascinating.

Ruby hissed like a cat and brought her foot down on his then before he could react brought her elbow up and nailed him in the underside of the jaw with enough force to snap his head back on his neck painfully. "No touching asshole!"

The guy holding her other arm, wrapped his tail around her middle and lifted her up off of the floor a second before Rimfire let out a loud blood chilling growl as he tackled the man to the floor from behind causing him to drop Ruby...

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Jenna sighed tiredly as she stepped outside of the infirmary. If she had known a month ago how many people would be coming through, wounded, sick and dying, then she never would have volunteered her medical services to the martians.

She had been pulling eighteen hour shifts every three days for the past month. And she was dog_ tired_.

She heard Jean's voice, speaking softly from her right and turned her head to see the team jerk standing against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, decked out in a black sleeveless shirt and his uniform pants, his gun belt strapped around his lean hips. And frowned.

"Jean, what are you doing here?" She wondered aloud earning a strange look from the rusty red haired man as he pushed away from the wall and without warning slipped an arm around her slender shoulders.

"I'm here to walk you to the cafeteria to meet with Ruby. You do remember that we're supposed to report in so she'll know that we're still alive right?"

Jenna was silent as she tried to sort out what he said as they started walking and nearly swore under her breath when she realized that he was right. Ruby didn't have many rules for the team aside from being able to work together during missions. But she did get a mite _pissed_ at them if they didn't report to her every few days or so when they were in an unfamiliar place. "Crap." She muttered in a dark tone causing Jean to snicker a little bit before she growled at him.

"Just what the hell is so damn funny?"

Jean abruptly stopped snickering and thinned his lips a little bit before replying in a polite tone. "Nothing."

"Liar..." Jenna snapped at him before they lapsed into an awkward silence for a moment or so before Jenna asked. "So. Why are you walking with me?"

"I'm trying to be a gentleman Jen. You know. Walk you from point A to point B, make polite conversation. Keep you safe from potential threats."

"Are you drunk or high?"

"Neither."

"And yet you're being nice."

"Yeah. So?"

"I...wasn't aware that you _could_ be nice." Jenna said without thinking and automatically slapped a hand over her mouth as soon as she realized what she had just said. Oh dear god how could she have said something so mean? He was probably pissed at her now.

Jean didn't say anything, didn't even seem to react to her hurtful words. He just looked down at her and put an index finger against his lips and gave her a conspirators wink. "I can. You just have to catch me at the right time is all." Jenna blinked up at him and slowly lowered her hand.

"You make it sound like it's a secret."

"It is." Jean admitted with a mischievous smile.

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Rimfire stood over the three unconscious males fairly shaking with rage before shifting his attention to Ruby. Who was sitting on the floor several feet away holding her arm which had been struck by one of the three soldiers tails during the fight and was bleeding. "Are you okay?" He asked in a rough tone as he reached his hand out and gently grasped her uninjured arm and hauled her to her feet and looked her over.

"I'm...fine. Are you?" Ruby asked after a second, her expression shocked. Just what the hell had _that_ been about?

"I'm fine. Let me see your arm." Rimfire said as he reached up and loosened the knot in the bandanna around his neck and slipped it off then carefully moved her hand out of the way so that he could examine the wound and growled when all he could see was blood pouring from the split tissue. Making him wonder if she had some sort of bleeding disorder as he probed the area around the three inch long wound. And noted that it must hurt quite a bit when he brushed his fingers along it.

Ruby hissed and jerked her arm almost out of his grasp and blinked back tears every time he tried to gauge the depth of the wound.

But he couldn't see how deep it was because of the blood, and couldn't get a good feel for if she needed to go to the infirmary or not so he just wrapped it in his bandanna and then looked at her face. She didn't really seem to be in any distress. Just confused and in a bit of pain. Other than that she was totally fine.

He took a deep shaky breath as he willed his heart to finally slow back to normal and he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her, still feeling shaken. He couldn't believe that _anyone_ on the base would try to grab her while knowing that she was a guest on their planet.

No matter how desperate their people were for females, guests were supposed to be untouchable. That was the rule! That had always been the rule. And they had had a handful of guests on their planet without incident. So why now of all times had some of the men decided to try something?

It was puzzling to him.

Like there was something going on that his superiors hadn't mentioned to him.


	19. Chapter 19

"You don't have to walk with me Rimfire. I'm sure that you have other things to do." Ruby said in an effort to disarm the potentially dangerous situation that she had found herself in. After saving her from the three soldiers and tending to her wound, Rimfire had taken it upon himself to escort her where ever she was going. And as sweet an offer as it was, she was worried that he may snap and hurt someone. _Severely_.

He was so tense and angry about the incident earlier that he was practically _vibrating_ with barely suppressed rage.

"No. I don't-" Rimfire said in a soft, deceptively calm tone of voice as he looked down at her. His eyes flickering from her face to her wounded arm as he clenched his jaw, his tail flicking behind him. Stirring the air with it's rapid movements. "I'm done with my work for the day so escorting you isn't a problem."

Ruby got quiet for a second before Rimfire said. "I'm going to have Stoker assign guards for you and your friend Jenna." She stiffened a little bit and tilted her head back to look at him and caught him staring at her. He had such a peculiar expression on his face. A cross between fury and worry.

What was going through his mind? She wondered before she looked away and tried to think of why he would feel the need to assign guards to her and Jenna. Then it hit her. That he was worried about her not because she was human, but because she was a woman.

That was why he had included Jenna. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. He looked down at her small hand, and lifted his own to grasp it before looking at her again. "What are you so afraid of?"

Rimfire looked uncomfortable for a second and silently debated on telling her what had almost happened to her earlier but in the end decided that it was for the best to keep her in the dark. At least for a little bit longer and half lied to her. "Nothing. I just don't want anyone trying anything again."_ I don't want you getting hurt_. He thought as he gave her hand a small squeeze.

He was lying to her, she could sense it yet wasn't sure if she should call him on it. After all she had no proof that he was lying to her. Just a gut feeling that he wasn't being honest with her. "Were you going back to your room?" Rimfire asked curiously and Ruby shook her head no.

"Cafeteria. I'm supposed to be meeting with the others to make sure that they're still alive and staying out of trouble."

"Alright then. I'll walk you there since I was going to grab something to eat anyways. If you want I'll hang around until you're done and walk you to your room too."

"You don't have-" Ruby started to tell him that he didn't have to escort her anywhere, but he cut her of with a quick and curt.

"Yes. I do."_ Again_. Irritating her to the point where she almost kicked his feet out from under him and stomped on him just to make herself feel better about having a _cave mouse_ walking her everywhere. They lapsed into another awkward silence until they reached the cafeteria, when Rimfire left her side after telling her that if she tried to sneak out of the room alone.

He'd tie her up and stuff her in his room for the next three weeks and she wouldn't be able to go anywhere or do anything without him being right there. Ruby stood there for a moment watching his back as he walked away and silently vowed retaliation.

Later.

When he least expected it.

She scanned the room noting that a handful of men were looking at her with calculating expressions on some of their faces. Odd that before today she had noticed that they looked at her, just not in a calculating way. She looked again and smiled when she saw her team. Jean, Jenna and Mark were all seated at the table closest to the farthest wall waiting on her.

Just like she had asked them too.

Mark stood up and waved at her and Jean reached out and grabbed his arm and yanked it down, growling something about him acting like an idiot then crossed his arms over his chest and waited quietly for her to join them while Jenna laid her head down and tried to doze off.

Ruby sat down across the table from her three team mates and smiled. "What up?"

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Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Much like every other time they had come to report in to her. Mark had been first to report. A mistake on her part since she had temporarily forgotten how much the man had liked the current planets, alien technology.

He had rambled on for about an hour about how much he loved technology before she had stopped him and asked Jean how he had been. The answer was short, sweet and oddly out of character for him. But she understood where he was coming from.

She missed having Gabriel around too although not for the same reasons that Jean did. But she was impressed by how well he was holding himself together. Apparently he was saving his energy until Gabriel got back.

Jenna...didn't exactly give a report.

She was already sound asleep by the time it was her turn and Ruby and the two men didn't want to wake her since she was so tired. She must have been working irregular shifts at the infirmary. Which was why Jean offered to put her up in his room for the night before she dismissed them.


	20. Chapter 20

Modo looked at his bros and rolled his eyes.

It had been an hour now and he just couldn't get over how _forgetful_ they seemed to be. If their _shal-la_ had gotten herself kidnapped by some of their un-mated males, then the damage would be done by now.

"I wonder how our _shal-la's_ doing-" He said out loud. Trying to jog their memories. Vinny and Throttle both stopped what they were doing to look at him funny. Apparently not catching on just yet. So Modo continued. "I'm sure that she's fine. But I can't help but worry that she might have been kidnapped or something..."

He saw something flicker in their expressions a moment before they jumped to their feet, a resounding shout of alarm escaping them both as they turned and all but ran for the door in a blind panic. Modo hung back and gave a humorless chuckle before he got up out of his seat and started after them.

Finally. It sinks in for them that they shouldn't have let their _shal-la _leave their room or their side for any reason.

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After Rimfire had eaten something and collected Commander Ruby, he then escorted her back to her bunker gave her a very soft gentlemanly kiss on the cheek to sort of apologize for his less than social and understanding behavior after saving her from some of his fellow soldiers and then went strait to the bunker that had been given to his uncle Modo and his bros.

He'd been standing outside their door for the past fifteen minutes, shifting from foot to foot, longingly wanting to tear into them for not getting their acts together and doing something about their life debt _before_ now.

Yet the more understanding and less angry part of his mind kept holding him back, arguing that they weren't ready to do anything about the life debt just yet because they were still healing. One month of care and freedom _couldn't_ and _wouldn't_ erase three years of mental anguish and severe physical abuse.

It just wasn't possible. No matter how much better they seemed to be doing recently.

Rimfire knew that they were still struggling. He knew that they would probably be struggling for a good long while. But something had to be done before something happened to Ruby or Jenna. The last thing they needed was a war with the humans over any damages that the two females may suffer if things continued as they were.

He lifted his hand to knock and stopped about mid way wondering why he was even bothering to try and knock when he felt more like kicking the door down. Honestly if his mother could see him now, all _frazzled_ and _pissed_.

And yet so _bizarrely_ polite. She'd laugh herself to death.

And if he hadn't been feeling so out of sorts at the moment, he'd have found his actions sort of funny too. He was about to drop his arm when he heard the faint sound of someone (or was that two someones?) shouting on the other side of the door and took an automatic step back as memories of his uncle and his bros rough housing flashed through his mind a scant moment before the door opened and Throttle and Vinny all but fell through the door at his feet.

"_Shal-la!_"

"Shit, which way did she go when she left-" Rimfire's temper resurfaced the instant he heard them speak as the two scrambled over each other in an effort to get to their feet and tried to run down the hall in opposite directions.

Tried, but failed when Rimfire in an eerily calm manner stepped on both of their tails effectively stopping them in their tracks before he reached out and grabbed them both by the scruff of their necks and without warning slammed their heads together _painfully_.

The two yelped and Rimfire felt his temper wane a little bit as he dragged them back inside of their room, using his body to block the only available escape route when he saw his uncle standing a little under half way across the room, his one eye a little wide and stunned looking. "Rimfire? What are you-"

"I'll tell you why I'm here in a second." Rimfire said as he used his tail to hit the button that closed the door before he let Throttle and Vinny go. No sooner than they were free, than the two males quickly bounded to their feet and turned on him with furious expressions on their faces.

"What the good goddamn do you think your doing boy." Throttle snapped at the youngster. Rimfire growled low in his throat and stepped closer to the older man until their faces were mere inches apart.

"I think I'm pissed at the three of you for what happened to Ruby earlier tonight." The young man growled at them. Throttle blinked and leaned back a little bit. His mind kicking into overdrive as he tried think. Something happened to Ruby?

What? What happened to Ruby? Was she okay?

"What happened Rimfire?" Modo asked calmly as he looked over Vinny and Throttle. The two seemed to be frozen in place other wise they'd be tearing down the walls in an effort to get out of the room to go check on their _shal-la_.

Rimfire must have known that Vinny and Throttle were close to freaking out, he took one look at them and sighed, all earlier traces of anger fading from his expression. "Ruby was grabbed by a few guys earlier tonight-" Vinny made a strained sound as the younger man crossed his arms and looked around the room before continuing. "She's fine. Aside from a wound on her arm, she managed to hurt one of them before I reached her. I took care of them and escorted her to meet her team and then to her room. But I'll be talking with Stoker about what happened and seeing if we can assign a few guards to keep her and her little friend Jenna from being taken."

It took a second for Rimfire's words to sink in, but once they did, Throttle seemed to snap out of his funk and said in a serious tone. "There's no need for you to do that Rimfire. We'll take care of things from here."

Rimfire stared at him for a second then reached up and grasped the front of the older males shirt and pulled him down a little bit and hissed. "You better. _Failure_ isn't an option. Understand."


	21. Chapter 21

Ruby couldn't sleep. She'd been trying to for the past hour but no matter how tired she was, she just couldn't manage to doze off. Which was why she got up to go for a walk, hoping that that would ease her restlessness a bit. She made it half way to the door before realizing_ two_ very important things.

1) She wasn't properly dressed to go walking around the base in the middle of the night.

And 2) Rimfire had told her not to leave her bunker or he'd snap a tracking collar on her (whatever the hell that was) and toss her in the brig or something to that effect.

She hadn't really been paying attention to him when he had been trying to bully her. Her mind had been preoccupied with other things. Like why he was freaking about the incident earlier. That seemed as good a question as any.

Yet when she had asked him again what was bugging him, he had shut her down and opened the door to her room then gently pushed her inside after kissing her cheek. Leaving her with the funny feeling that something was going on and Rimfire was trying to hide it.

Which made her a little wary of even trying to leave her bunker for a walk. Well that and she was pretty sure that Rimfire had been totally serious about his threats. So maybe instead of going for a nice long walk, she'd just open the door and peek outside, in a nice anxious fashion. And try not to drive herself nuts with the things in her head.

But first- First she had to get some clothes on. After all, running around a military base in a revealing shirt and booty short. Even she _knew_ that that was the same as holding up a big neon sign and practically screaming, '_Sexual deviants, I'm right here! Come and molest me!_'

And she was _not_ going to tempt fate.

She grabbed the dirty shirt sleeveless shirt that she had been wearing earlier, and a pair of baggy drawstring sweat pants that Gabriel had lent to her a while back, and then walked towards the door and pushed the button and rubbed her eyes tiredly as it opened before she dropped her arms and started to step outside and ran into a hard male body.

She made an 'ooomph' sound and started to stagger back when a pair of arms wrapped around her and sort of lifted her feet off of the floor and held her in place as a soft familiar voice spoke in an curious tone. "Going somewhere _shal-la_?"

She looked up and blinked at the face of one of the three alien males that she had played that ridiculous game with earlier. "Hey. What are you three doing here?" She asked in a surprised tone as the gray furred male, Modo, put her back on her feet and let her go.

The man smiled at her, though the expression held little humor as he said in a gentle tone. "We came to check up on you."

She frowned and was about to ask them why they had come to check up on her when it hit her that they had talked to Rimfire. Meaning that the young man had made good on his word to assign guards to her. _Oh god damn it-_ Ruby thought as she reached up and pushed her hair back from her face and wondered if there was anything that she could say that would get the three to leave. "Ah. So... I'm assuming that Rimfire said something about earlier-"

"_He did_-" Vinny confirmed and Ruby flushed a little bit in embarrassment. _Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!_ Oh she was going to hurt that fuzzy butted boy the next time she saw him. _"He told us that you were wounded and that someone needed to keep an eye on you."_ Vinny said as his eyes flickered to the bloody bandage tightly wrapped around her right upper arm.

Ruby sub consciously lifted her hand to try and cover the wound and took a small step back. "Well he was mistaken. I'm fine-" She said.

"Don't lie _shal-la_. Your as far from fine as you can be-" Throttle said as he stepped around Modo and moved to stand in front of her for a second, his scarlet eyes unblinkingly staring at her. "You can't sleep. You probably haven't eaten anything in days. Your health is suffering, and to make things worse some of our comrades grabbed you. And you've been wounded-" He reached out and gently grasped her arm in his hands and lightly ran his fingers over the bloody bandages, his fingers coming away stained a little bit with her blood. He frowned a little bit and then looked at her face. "This bandage needs to be changed, then you need to lay down and rest..."

"My health is fine. I'll rest later-" Ruby said as she tried to extract her arm from his grasp and let out a pained hiss when his fingers tightened around her arm just under the wound, causing her arm to throb and ache as he stepped in closer and put his free hand against her chest, right over her heart, and pushed her back against the wall and trapped her there with his body and growled in a low tone.

"No _shal-la_. You're going to do exactly as I tell you too and you're not going to argue. First of all, you're going to_ invite_ us into your room-" Ruby flushed and started to stutter, her expression a cross between mortification and a 'like hell I will' look. "Secondly, you're going to be a good girl and let one of us _tend_ to your wound. Then you're going to_ lay down_ with us and try to get some sleep."

Ruby's mind came to a screeching halt and she made a strangled sound, her face a vivid shade of pink as she tried to deny them, to scream No at the top of her lungs and retreat into her room and wait for them to go away. But she couldn't seem to speak now. This man and his two friends had effectively shut down her brain and stolen her ability to speak!

He waited fro her to say something, obviously expecting her to freak out and start screaming and seemed a little amused when she couldn't seem to articulate the words to say Aye or Nay, and so mistakenly thought that they had permission and grasped her wrist and dragged her into her room and waited until Vinny and Modo were in the room with them and the door was closed before he finally let her go.


	22. Chapter 22

Ruby staggered across the metal floor for a second before catching herself and swinging around to glare at the three aliens as they looked around her room taking note of the things that she had out in the open and the things that she didn't.

Their _shal-la_ as it turned out, simply wasn't a girly girl type or female. Sure she had scented lotions (three of them to be exact. Jasmine, Sunflower, Honey and Cinnamon) sitting on one of the shelves hanging above her bed. Along with a hair brush and a thin soft green satin ribbon. Which was as girly as she probably got.

Thank god for small favors. If they're _shal-la_ had been one of those girls who liked pink and frills and lace and stuff they probably would have hung themselves.

"What do you think you're doing?" Their _shal-la_ demanded when she finally managed to find her voice again, drawing their attention back to her. _Oh, right-_ They thought in bemusement. They needed to do something about her arm and then help her get some rest.

Throttle stepped away from Modo and Vinny and walked into the small kitchen and placed his hand against a small square panel in the wall and pushed against it until there was a soft clicking sound and the panel opened up, revealing a little first aid kit. He pulled the kit out and then turned and walked out of the kitchen and over to the small table and set the first aid kit down while Vinny grasped Ruby's uninjured arm and dragged her over to the table (_hissing_ and _spitting_ like a wild cat, Throttle was amused to notice) and made her sit down.

While Modo stayed close to the door just in case she managed to get away from them and try to escape the room while Throttle opened the first aid kit and pulled out several things, some antiseptic ointment, some clean bandages then glanced across the table at Ruby who was staring at him with a murderous expression on her face and couldn't help but smile a little bit.

My, but she looked as if she would like to jump across the table and strangle him. He thought in wary amusement.

"Relax _shal-la_. We're only here to help." He said gently as he scooted his chair around the edge of the table a little bit so that he had better access to her wounded arm. And then reached out and carefully undid the tie holding the bandages in place and sighed when she jerked her arm back away from his hands as far as she could and sort of hunched her shoulders a little bit and tried to make herself look small.

A slight tremor going through her body. Was she really that bothered by their presence? Throttle wondered as he made a low hushing sound and reached for her arm again as he started speaking to her in a soft soothing voice, trying to comfort her and put her fears to rest.

After all they weren't there to hurt her. In fact, _physically_ or _mentally_ harming her were two of the farthest things from any of their minds.

"I know that you don't like having us here, but we aren't going to hurt you-" Throttle said softly as he slowly unwound the bandages from Ruby's arm. She twitched as she felt his finger tips brush the skin along her wound and inhaled sharply. "In fact that's the farthest thought from our minds... But since we're making you so uncomfortable why don't you tell us about what's going through your head. It'll help us understand what your feeling better."

Ruby shook her head no and tried to block out the unpleasant memories swarming her mind. But it was difficult. Far more difficult than she would have liked considering that _this_ situation so closely resembled the one that had led up to her capture two years prior.

And she'd worked too hard to hide what she had done to simply blurt it out to a bunch of aliens who probably wouldn't understand much about her situation even though they themselves had suffered time in captivity and countless horrors. "No! I can't tell. I can _never_ tell..." Ruby said as Throttle rubbed the antiseptic ointment into the torn skin around her wound, a small scowl flitting across his features as he took stock of how deep the wound was and tried to calculate how long it would take to heal.

It was much deeper than he thought it would be, the force that had been used to split the skin open had done more_ damage_ than Rimfire must have known about or he would have dragged her to the infirmary to have Ruby's arm stitched up. Aside from the skin being split open, a small bit of muscle in her arm had been split open too. Almost to the bone. "Is that so-" He said absent mindedly as he gently probed the wound before asking, "Does this hurt?"

Ruby hissed as her arm started to throb painfully but otherwise showed no signs of pain or discomfort causing him to frown a little more. "Well sweetheart you lucked out if you're not in much pain. Normally wounds like this would cause nerve damage, get infected and lead up to either amputation or death."

"Wonderful. So stop poking your fingers into the wound and wrap it already."

"Eager to get rid of us." It wasn't a question. Merely a small observation as his scarlet eyes flickered to her face, noting that her eyes were rimmed in red and she was trying so hard to hold herself together. Of course she would be eager to be rid of them, she wasn't the type to let others see her at her weakest unless she absolutely trusted them with all her heart and soul. And they were still virtual strangers to her.

But what she didn't seem to realize was that her reaction to having them in the room with her was already telling.

Something about the current situation reminded her of her time in captivity. Now all that was left was for them to fill in the blanks any way that they could. Which shouldn't be hard if they played twenty questions. Especially since she was exhausted and would most likely slip up and answer their questions whether she meant too or not.

"Does having us bully our way in here remind you of something?" He asked curiously as he finished rubbing the ointment in and wiped his hands on his pants before picking up a small roll of bandages and started to re wrap her arm as he patiently waited for her to respond.

It took only a second or so. And she didn't disappoint. "Yes. The night I was captured. This reminds me of that."

He made a humming sound. "I'm sorry. It's not our intention to dredge up bad memories."

"Part of me knows that-" Ruby admitted in a hushed tone that he almost had to strain to hear. "But even so, this situation is so eerily similar that my mind starts replaying everything and _I can't shut_ _it down._" She said in an almost hysterical tone and jumped when she felt Vinny hands settle on her shoulders.

"_Take a deep breath shal-la and try to remember that your in a safe place_." He rasped gently as he looked at Throttle, his expression doubtful. He knew what his bro was up too. He just wasn't sure if it was a good idea if it was causing their _shal-la_ so much distress.

Throttle however didn't seem to care or rather he did, he just hid it better since he knew that the information would help them _understand_ her better and though it may hurt her. It was something that needed to be done if they were going to take care of her. "You can tell us what happened _shal-la_. The information won't leave this room in any way." Throttle said softly, coaxingly.

Ruby bit her bottom lip and shook her head no again. She couldn't tell them. She couldn't tell anyone that she had murdered thirty seven women and young girls in cold blood to keep them from being hurt anymore.

She'd told people before and they hadn't understood the full horror of what some of those girls and women had suffered before she killed them. No one had understood that they had all but begged for her to kill them. No one had understood how much _pain_ they had been in.

Or that they had already been broken so _horrifically_.

No one had understood that Ruby had done the _only_ thing that she could for them in a bad situation when there had been no hope of escape or rescue. "No one understands. I can't tell. I can never tell."

"Never tell what, _shal-la_?" Throttle asked curiously as he tied the ends of the bandages together his mind already going through different scenarios that could explain her secretive behavior. She had said that no one understood, but refused to say what it was that no one understood.

Just what had happened to her anyways?


	23. Chapter 23

This is a fairly dark chapter.

Not for the weak or faint of heart.

Rated **M** for mature and suggestive themes.

You have been warned.

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"I'm not supposed to tell anyone about the people that I killed..." Ruby said in a soft almost anguished tone. Throttle's eyes flickered to her face as she hung her head, her pale hair slipping in her face, hiding it from view.

"The people you killed were enemies-" Throttle said gently attempting to sooth her and blinked in surprise when she snapped at him.

"You're assuming that I'm not an indiscriminate killer. I do not kill _just_ enemies."

Throttle went totally still and looked at her, catching the smallest glimpse of stormy green eyes before she ducked her head and looked away from him. She just gave them a huge part of the puzzle that was their_ shal-la_, yet they weren't sure how to react or respond to her words.

It was obvious that she felt badly for what she had done. So maybe she had accidentally hurt or killed someone and wasn't over it yet. "Will you tell us about what happened to you _shal-la_? If we promise not to judge you harshly without looking at things from every angle, would you tell us what happened when you were captured?" Throttle asked softly.

She was quiet for several seconds as she chewed on her bottom lip and seemed to consider his words. "You promise?" Her voice had taken on a child like quality that Throttle had never heard before. A small testament to how heavily her sin weighed down on her heart.

"We promise _shal-la_." Modo said from somewhere to her left as Throttle nodded his head and Vinny moved around her seat so that she could see him nod his head as he dropped down to the floor at Throttle's feet, placing himself between his friend and her.

She took a deep breath and wondered if this was the right thing to do and couldn't help but feel greatful to them for being willing to listen and then started speaking. "It was my fourth assignment. My job was to relocate refugees from various villages in Africa due to the war. Normally this would have been an easy thing to do, but the village that I was assigned to lead some refugees from, was one directly involved with the war. The village itself was only supposed to have a hundred people or so, but when my team and I got there we learned that there was over three hundred people in the village. Soldiers, civilians, elderly, women, children-"

"The reason for the sudden double in numbers had to do with the others being forced from their homes. They had had to watch as their homes were taken, their families had been split apart. They had people who were injured and sick and needed help and they thought that the people of the village that they had gone to could help them. They tried, but in between the fighting and having their own people killed, morale and food and medicine was all dangerously low. The leaders of the rebel forces knew that the village was going to fall soon and asked for our help to get as many people out as we could."

"They gathered what weapons and food that they could spare and decided to send out the elderly, women and children first. They broke them into groups of a two dozen or more, and sent them with one of the four other teams that had come to help while three other teams tried to hold back the enemy forces, despite the fact that we had told them that sending such a large number of people across the line was _very_ dangerous."

"We lost two teams right away along with almost ninety refugees. Another team fell in the field. One made it back to safety with only half of the people who had been originally sent. Turns out that there was a small group of people betraying the rebels and giving information about where the refugees were being taken. The enemy ambushed us half way to the safe point. All _eleven_ of my team was killed and five of the forty something refugees with us were hurt. I myself had gotten wounded in the shoot out but I was able to set a trap and get everyone out of there before we were all killed."

"And then suddenly I found myself alone in the middle of the jungle, without help. Five wounded civilians, and forty something others, and I was suddenly responsible for getting them all out of there. It was _horrifying_. I didn't think that I could do it. And yet three in a half days later we all staggered out of the jungle and into a village just a few miles from where I was supposed to take the refugees. The village was supposed to be good at helping soldiers from the U.S and we did have five wounded including myself, that needed to be seen too. So I thought that maybe we could lay low there for a night and rest."

She took a shuddering breath and lifted her hands and covered her face with them and continued to speak.

"I was so _stupid_ to think that we'd all be safe there. I met with the village leader and asked for permission to stay there for the night and told him our situation and he gave his permission, but then he went and contacted the enemy and told them that he'd hand over the lot of us for some money. Apparently his village had hit hard times and he wanted money for more food and medicine for his people. He told them that we had five wounded and that I was wounded and that the best way to get at us was to pretend to be a village medic."

"I was in one of the buildings cleaning my wound when I heard the gun shots. I grabbed my gun and started to leave the building to investigate and the next thing I know I woke up on the ground, my hands were bound and I was in a bamboo cage. I heard screaming and moved to see what was going on and I could see through the bars just enough to see the soldiers taking the men and boys from the group and pushing them into a pit in the ground. Then I saw them pick up cans of gas and start pouring it over them. The women and children were huddled together crying and screaming as they dropped a torch into the pit and watched them burn."

Throttle, Modo and Vinny were deathly quiet as she sobbed, her shoulders shaking as the tears that she had been trying to hold back finally spilled forth and the three got a sickening feeling in the pit of their stomachs as she continued speaking.

"Next they took the small children, any of them under the age of twelve was shot right in front of their mothers. Once that was done they seperated several more from the group. Women and young girls alike and stripped them-"

"_They raped them. Didn't they shal-la_?" Vinny said gently as he reached out and took one of her small hands in his. She lifted her head a little bit and gave them a pained look and slowly nodded her head.

"They took turns using weapons and flesh-" She stopped speaking for a second and closed her eyes. "I was forced to sit there and watch and listen to everything that was done. Some of them were dead by morning and two or three others writhed in agony for days before they died. That left thirty seven left. Thirty seven innocent women and young girls who were going to be _tortured_ and _abused_ and _killed_ for nothing. I didn't know if help was coming and there was no hope of escape for all of us and _I couldn't let them keep hurting them!_"

"I started picking at a few of the bars, trying to loosen them enough to get out. And finally after so many days of being able to do nothing I finally managed to slip out of the cage while it was dark. I killed two guys that were walking around the cage and stole their guns and I shot every woman being held in the other cage. I shot them in the head so they wouldn't feel anything. And by the time I was done the enemy was closing in on me. I turned the gun on myself but damn it, all of the bullets were gone..."

Vinny's hand tightened around hers a little bit as Modo asked, "What happened after that?"

"They beat the ever loving hell out of me and put me back in the cage. When I woke up again, they made me bury the women and girls. After that everything blurs and I don't recall much aside from curling up on the ground in the far corner of my cage and crying. I started counting the days, but after about two weeks I lost count of how long I had been in there. They would drag me from the cage every day or so and try questioning me-"

"But that was pointless since I didn't under stand them. They'd hit me, and I'd laugh at them and tell them that they were pathetic. They'd drag me down to the river and hold my head under water until I stopped breathing, and then they'd shock me with car batteries to bring me back. I remember it hurt so much, but it didn't matter. They'd do it all over again a few more times then toss me back into the cage."

"I'd pick at the bars until I had loosened them again on the opposite side and I'd slip out from time to time and snap someone's neck and then drag them into the jungle and let the animals do the rest-" She gave them an slightly insane looking smile. "I don't think they figured out I was doing that until close to the end. That's when they upped the number of soldiers watching me."


	24. Chapter 24

Throttle, Vinny and Modo looked over the woman as she tried to make herself look small in her seat. They didn't doubt that this was painful for her. After all they could only imagine the horrors that she had _seen_ and _heard_ before escaping her cage and killing those people.

As a soldier and a woman herself, she would have felt more keenly the suffering of the civilians at the hands of the ones holding them captive.

And as she had said, they had been in a situation without hope of rescue and escape. If one thought about things and how those women would have suffered over a period of time, then it made sense that their _shal-la_ would have killed them.

Asking those poor civilians to 'grin and bear it' as the saying went, would have been utterly unforgivable. Especially when they might have been unlucky enough to have suffered months maybe even years before their wounds finally killed them.

She'd done the only kind thing that she could in that situation. She'd ended their pain before it had truly started. And she was paying a heavy price for it.

Her health, both mentally and physically was suffering. They sat there in silence for several minutes, trying to think of what to say or do while their _shal-la_ buried her face in her hands and started to cry as if her heart were breaking all over again.

Throttle got up out of his seat and carefully stepped over Vinny, who ducked his head a little bit on reflex as Throttle moved over to Ruby's seat and grasped the back and slowly pulled it out and then leaned down and wrapped his arms around her-

Pausing for a second when he felt her stiffen before he lifted her up out of the chair and held her against his chest and looked at his bros his expression telling them all that needed to be said and more. Now that they knew what their _shal-la_ had gone through, they could finally make up their minds about serving her.

After all, it helped to know what sort of person they would be swearing the oath too. And after learning what had her tied up in such knots several things were made abundantly clear.

1) The woman wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty for _any_ reason. Ethical or not. If she felt she was doing the right thing, she'd grit her teeth and do what she had to do. No matter how _damning_ or _damaging_ it was to her.

2) She wasn't afraid of the consequences of such actions.

3) She was afraid of other peoples lack of understanding. Perhaps the feeling of abandonment she got from other people's lack of understanding, is why her choice to spare those women and young girls hurt her so damn much.

It wasn't just about the fact that she had killed innocent people.

It was however, about how she had made the only logical choice to spare them the type of horrors that made one's blood run cold. And because no one seemed to realize the full extent of that _horror_, they attacked her mercilessly. Physically, and mentally.

Throttle's heart ached in his chest as he thought over everything that Ruby had told them. It was little wonder she was falling apart at the seams, she was suffering from a severe case of survivors guilt. He thought for a moment, wracking his brain for something meaningful to say to sooth her but after a moment or so of thinking, he realized that there was simply nothing that any of them could say.

So he just held her until her sobs died down and eventually stopped before sighing and asking. "Is she asleep?"

Vinny got up off of the floor and peeked at her face, noting that her eyes were closed and her breathing was a little bit calmer. "_Yeah, I think so_."

"Well, that's no surprise. The poor thing must be totally exhausted." Modo said softly.

"_Of course she's exhausted. She hasn't been sleeping_." Vinny rasped as he looked at Modo.

"So what do we do now?"

"We fix the bed so that all of us can fit on the mattress-"

"_You mean that we're sleeping here?_"

"Would you leave someone alone in this condition after hearing a confession like that?" Throttle asked as he shifted his hold on Ruby so that she would be more comfortable.

Modo and Vinny exchanged a look then shrugged. Throttle had a point, they couldn't leave their _shal-la_ alone after this.

Modo walked over to the bed and grasped the top mattress and dragged it out of the bed frame and into the middle of the floor then dropped it into place and then moved back over to the bed and dragged the second mattress over to the first one while Vinny picked up the covers and arranged them just so before moving back out of the way so that Throttle could lay Ruby down.

The tan furred alien moved over to the mattress and dropped to his knees, slowly so that he wouldn't jostle the woman awake, and gently laid her down and started to pull the covers up over her when she opened her eyes a little bit and looked at him. He gave her a small smile and placed one hand over her eyes and said in a hushed tone. "Don't worry about a thing _shal-la_. You will not be alone tonight."

A second later he felt her eyes close under his palm and she took a deep breath and a moment later was asleep again. Leaving him to talk with his bros and make a final decision about what they were going to do.


	25. Chapter 25

Gabriel had just stepped through the trasporter when he noticed the cruiser sitting twenty feet away and waved at the two guys leaning against it's side and smiled. God it felt so good to be back on Mars after going home to tie up loose ends.

He'd had to contact his and Ruby's boss and tell him that they'd be gone three more months, stopped by Aunt Charlie's place.

And told her what had happened to her friends then let her know that they were safe and doing much better. The relief on her face had been telling before she had handed him a radio and told him to give it to the guys. That they would know what to do with it.

He'd promised to give the radio to the three then left the garage to go by his place, which had taken him a very _long_ and _tiring_ three hour drive from Chicago just to reach his cozy little cabin style house, located smack dab in the middle of hillbilly central.

Where the rabid opossums ran wild and free and serial killers used the woods as their dumping ground.

He'd gotten out of his car to go grab some stuff for Ruby, thinking that she would be feeling home sick soon and would need something familiar to keep her from feeling too badly and had had to dive for cover when he'd heard someone shoot a gun somewhere close by (no doubt hunting for deer or something) and had throw himself to the ground just to be on the safe side since he had no idea which direction the person shooting, was pointing their damn gun.

And had all but crawled up the front steps to his door before fumbling around while trying to unlock the door and then slipping inside, where he camped out for two days to rest before calling up his parents and talking to them.

As usual since the day that Ruby had come home, they didn't ask about her or even mention her. Leaving him to wonder if he was the only person in the damn world other than their Aunt Charlie who actually cared about the girl.

After that, he'd packed up a few extra things for her. Her favorite three books to read, some bottles of her favorite shampoo and conditioner. A small stuffed animal that she'd had since she was a little girl. Her old MP3 player, which he had fixed for her so that it played her most recent favorite songs.

Some more clothes and that was it. He'd hit the road again on the third day after packing everything into his car then headed back to Chicago wanting to get back to Mars as soon as he could so that he could check up on Ruby.

Sure, he'd asked Stoker to keep an eye on her but the man probably had other things that he had to do. Watching a human, even if it was to keep her out of trouble, would be a little bit of a pain. Especially since Ruby got pretty needy when he wasn't around.

Not that that was her fault. But the degree of how much she suffered when he wasn't around, bothered him greatly.

"Hey guys, been waiting long?" He asked cheerfully as he walked over to the two soldiers that had been sent to pick him up. The two looked at each other, a strange expression crossing their faces before they bothered answering.

"No. Not long. Did you do everything that you had set out to do?"

Gabriel grinned at them. "Yup. Contacted my family. My boss-"

"What did you contact your leader for?" One of the soldiers, a black furred alien with snowy colored hair asked.

"I contacted my boss to tell him that the team and myself would be here for another three months before we would be back." Gabriel said and watched as the two exchanged looks again as a lead weight settled in the pit of his stomach.

Something was going on. But he didn't really have time to speculate about what it was before one of the soldiers said, "Sorry man. We have our orders. The females will be staying and that means that the rest of your team has to go." A second before he drew his gun and pulled the trigger...

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"_Shal-la...is a very strong person for a woman._" Vinny said as he raised up on his elbow, next to the sleeping woman, and looked over at Throttle who had curled his body around Ruby's so that she wouldn't feel cold since Vinny had more or less stolen all of the covers a little while ago and had yet to return them to the rest of the group.

Throttle made a soft humming sound and wrapped his arms tighter around the small delicate body laying against his front. "Yes. She is." He finally said in a soft tone as he tucked Ruby's head under his chin and closed his eyes as Modo shifted on the mattress behind him.

"She's less sheltered than other human females-"

"Yeah."

"Stronger."

"Yeah."

"_Kinder._" Vinny said in an almost awed tone.

"Fragile-" Modo said a second or so before sighing. As much as he hated to admit it, he admired the woman. Her strength, her gumption, her conviction, her kindness. Hell he even liked the fact that she was still human enough after going through such horrors to cry and fall apart.

All in all, she was a very admirable person. He supposed that binding himself to her through the oath wouldn't be so bad. "Alright... I"m in."


	26. Chapter 26

Gabriel stood over the two soldiers with the stolen gun in his hand and tried to resist the urge to pistil whip the one who was still conscious. "Okay mister mousy, this is how things are going to work. You're going to tell me why you and your buddy attacked me and maybe-_ maybe_, I'll let you live."

The dark furred alien bristled a little bit and growled at him and got Gabriel's foot planted in the middle of his face for his efforts. "Don't fuck with me fuzzy. I'll blast a hole the size of a fist in the nice skull of yours without a second thought. If you piss me off. Now I suggest you start talking."

The alien shook his head as if to clear it and glared up at him as blood trickled out of his nose.

Gabriel hated that things had turned out like this, he didn't actually feel any animosity towards these two soldiers. Or any other martian soldiers. He just wanted to know _why_ they had attacked him and if he should_ expect_ the same treatment from the others at the base.

He doubted that Stoker would be a part of this. Nor did he think that Carbine and Rimfire would be a part of this. But just to er on the side of caution, he felt it was wisest to ask anyways. The alien was silent for another minute or so and Gabriel raised his free hand to strike him when the soldier finally caved.

"It's the females..."

He dropped his hand and visibly tensed. Somehow he had been worried that that was the reason for the attack on him. "What about them?"

"We have been ordered to eliminate you and the other males on your team and take the females into custody so that a mate can be found for them."

Gabriel sighed and shook his head. He could feel a headache forming behind his eyes. _Oh dear god-_

These people _had_ to be idiots for thinking that Ruby and Jenna would be easy to take into 'custody'. For starters, Jenna had a mean streak in her a mile deep. It didn't surface often. But if she was irked enough, then whoever was on the receiving in had better watch themselves.

And Ruby... There was no way that she'd allow _anyone_ to take her into custody. Not after what happened to her in Africa. No, she was far more likely to lose what little bit of sanity she had left and kill everyone that dared to try to get near her before she turned her gun on herself.

"Custody, huh. Isn't that just a creative term for prisoner?" Gabriel asked thoughtfully. The alien looked taken aback for a second, then a horrified expression crossed his face.

"Wha? No! We wouldn't take them prisoner! We would merely take them into custody and keep them from escaping."

"I think you need a dictionary definition of the term 'custody' and 'prisoner' cause you seem to have you're idea of the word a little messed up. Taking someone into _custody_ is what you do when someone breaks the law. Preventing escape is what you do when you take someone _prisoner_. Get it?"

The look of confusion on the alien's face was telling. He didn't understand at all.

_It's like talking to a three year old._ Gabriel thought in irritation as he lowered his gun then said. "You know, I get that your people are suffering the threat of extinction and all. But that's no excuse for attacking someone from another planet. I don't suppose that it's ever occurred to you that I _did_ tell my boss _where_ I would be these next few months, and if my team and I aren't back on Earth at the end of the appointed time, alive and well. You'd be chancing starting a war with Earth on top of the war with the Plutarkians. You're people would be completely wiped out. Is that what you want?"

The alien got a panicked look on his face and quickly shook his head _no_ as Gabriel gave him a cold smile. "Good boy. Now I'm going to head back to the base to have a little chat with some friends and to check up on my girls. And if anything has happened to any of my team... You and your friend there will be the very last of your kind. Because I will destroy _all_ of you. Understand?"

The alien made a strained sound as Gabriel pushed him over with his hand then turned and walked over to his stuff and picked the packs up and slung them over his shoulder and threw the laser gun towards a rock patch several feet away and started walking as he called out over his shoulder.

"Stay down and be good and I'll send someone to get you and your friend once I'm back on base!" And with that he walked up the short ramp onto the ship, and pressed the button that closed the hatch and then dropped the back packs and headed towards the cockpit.

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Stoker was sitting in his private quarters trying to unwind after a long stressful day with a drink of martian whiskey when he heard a soft rapping at his door. He blinked and looked to his left at the clock on the wall and frowned as he noted the time.

It was well after four in the morning. Who the hell would be bothering him this late? He wondered as he sat there for a second to see if whoever was at the door would go away. There was silence for all of two seconds before he heard the rapping of knuckles on his door again, this time the sound was louder and more rapid. Insistent. Irritated.

It was _annoying_ him. Greatly.

He lifted his glass and took a small sip of his drink and stared at the door as if he were trying to silently will it and the person on the other side of it- to both disappear. Finally after about ten minutes of some very persistent knocking (and some muffled swearing) he finally sighed and got up out of his seat and walked across the room and opened the door and just barely had time to jump back as a fist came flying towards his face followed by a loud booming voice that he recognized instantly as two things went through his mind while he ducked.

_Rimfire... Brat._

"Goddammit Stoker! Open the fucking door!"

Rimfire it would seem had something on his mind that was seriously bugging him... That or he had a death wish. Stoker mused as the young man staggered through the door and almost fell on his face before he could right himself as Stoker closed the door behind him.

"Is there a reason you've come looking for me so late in the evening?" Stoker asked as Rimfire turned around and saw him leaning against the wall next to the door. His gray fur bristling slightly in irritation, his eyes narrowed.

Rimfire suppressed the shiver that worked it's way down his spine and bristled back at the older man. "I need to talk to you about something that happened earlier today."

"If something happened earlier then why are you just coming to talk to me about it _now_?" Stoker growled as he brushed by the boy and walked back over to his table and sat back down and poured himself another drink thinking that the younger man had come to tell him about some random stupid thing.

He was not expecting Rimfire to tell him that one of the human women had been grabbed by a group of males, when she should have still been off limits as a guest of their people. Nor had he expected to hear that she had been wounded a little bit while Rimfire had been fighting back the males who had had her. Though he was a little bit relieved to know that her wounds hadn't been so great that she was now in the infirmary.

After Rimfire was done telling him these things he lapsed into a short silence then asked, "What the hell is going on?"

Stoker looked at him for a second then downed the rest of his drink and set his glass and the whiskey bottle aside. That was a damn good question.

_What_ was going on?

Rimefire left a little while after their talk and Stoker got dressed, figuring that he'd be starting his day early and without sleep once again and was on his way to see Carbine, who was no doubt awake by now when one of the soldiers from the radio room came running up and told him that Gabriel had radioed to tell him that he was on his way back. Then handed him a small piece of paper that he explained that Gabriel had asked him to give to the Commander before he ran off again.

Stoker studied the note in his hand for a second before unfolding it and getting this bizarre feeling of dread as he looked over Gabriel's message.

**Stoker,**

**We need to have a talk-**


	27. Chapter 27

Stoker was standing near the landing pad outside of the hanger, smoking a cigarette, when Gabriel's ship landed. He took one last drag and dropped what was left of the cancer stick and crushed it under his foot as the cruiser's ramp lowered and he could see the vague outline of the blond haired human male standing there with several things tightly grasped in his hands.

Gabriel looked right at him, his unnerving aqua colored eyes as he started down the ramp as Stoker pushed away from the wall and walked over to the human man. "Welcome back."

Gabriel gave him a dark look. Stoker sighed and reached out and grabbed one of the bags from the human's grasp and slung it over his shoulder before the man could react and asked. "What happened?"

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Ruby awoke with a jerk, her mind still functioning. Just at a slower, more exhausted pace.

She lay there for several seconds wondering what had woken her when she became aware of the soft rumbling sounds, one of which was right next to her ear. A second later she became aware of the arm draped over her stomach and the hard male body pressed flush against her back. _What the- _

She didn't recall going to bed with anyone yet she could detect three distinct sets of voices. Three distinct sets of snores. She hadn't taken part in anything stupid had she? She'd been pretty upset earlier but she didn't usual do stupid stuff involving men and the possibility of a bed.

So why was she being spooned by one guy? And who the hell was he and his friends? She thought for a moment-or maybe it was longer-and then carefully tried to shift away from the male spooning her and somehow managed to get away from him without waking him and then sat up and pushed against his shoulder, the softness of his fur tickling her fingers as the male twitched and groaned out the word, "What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to sleep."

"Why?"

"Because I'm tired,_ shal-la_. And so are you. Lay back down."

"But-" Ruby started to tell him that she wasn't tired anymore when she saw something come up towards her face in the darkness and flinched and jumped back a little bit in an attempt to escape but was too slow. She felt something that must have been a hand, slip under her hair, the long fingers curling around the back of her neck a second before she was jerked face down onto the mattress next to the male as he slowly pushed himself upright a little bit.

She rolled over and was about to sit up when she felt something partially cover her upper body a second before she felt the male's breath against her left shoulder and cautiously lifted her hands to see if he was pinning her down like she _felt_ he was and made a strained sound in the back of her throat when she felt his fur under her hands a second before realization sank in.

The bastard had pinned her to the bed by partially covering her body with his own. Yet he wasn't even _touching_ her.

His arms were braced on the mattress on either side of her shoulders, his head was resting on one of his arms, his face turned towards her. It couldn't have been a very comfortable position. She ran her fingers along his fur and jerked a little bit when he made a low warning sound and twitched before saying. "Knock it off. I'm ticklish there."

"Sorry. It's just that your fur is really soft." She said lamely. He made a soft humming sound in reply to her comment and shifted a little bit closer to her before saying.

"_Shal-la_, honey I'll let you pet my fur as much as you like-_ if_ you let me get a few more hours sleep. Besides you need the time to rest up yourself."

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"So basically your higher ups have decided that keeping Ruby and Jenna would be in the population's best interests." Gabriel said in a dangerously low tone as Stoker nodded his head mutely. He got the feeling that the human was just a hairs breath from going mid evil on all of their asses.

And while part of him was curious to see what the man could do, another part of him was practically screaming, **Run away! He'll kill you! **

"Yes. That does seem to be what they are thinking."

"And what exactly would happen if the girls were taken into custody?"

"I'm unsure of what you-" Stoker started to say but abruptly shut up when the human gave him a humorless smile. _Oh._ So that was what he was asking him. Gabriel wanted to know how a mate would be chosen for the women if they were taken into custody.

He needed to know what his females would be subjected too. If they would be forced into compliance.

"Oh.. Um basically the two would be taken to an isolated part of the base and locked up for a day while six or seven males are picked, normally they are picked because of certain traits. Strength, cunning, loyalty exct. Then before they are sent to see the female, one of our medics will do an exam to make sure that the female is healthy and would check various things. Physical health, mental health, illness or disease, when they are ovulating and so on. Then after checking all of these things, they give the female a shot of a drug that suppresses violent aggressive impulses."

"The idea of giving the female the drug was cased by a small incident about ten years ago when an alien woman was to be mated with one of our males. She killed him then herself thinking that she was going to be forced and abused-"

"Wasn't she right to think that?"

"No. It's not our way to force a woman to comply. If she doesn't like any of the males sent to her, then she's let go until the next time. The males know that once they step into the room with the female, they are giving over _all_ control to the woman. _She_ sets the pace. _She_ makes the first move if any are made. The males have no say in _anything_."

"You say that it sin't your way to force someone to comply, yet your forcing them to mate with your men against their will."

"We do not force them."

"Your kidding yourself if you think I'm going to believe that shit Stoker. You lock them up and drug them-" Stoker slammed his hands down on his desk as he got to his feet and snarled at the human.

"The drug doesn't hinder their thinking process! It doesn't even weaken them! It doesn't make the hot and eager to couple with our males! It's a protective measure that we take to keep them from harming themselves and our men. The choice is- And always has been_ theirs_ and theirs alone!"

"And what happens if they don't want to mate with anyone?"

Stoker took several deep breaths and slowly, very slowly sat back down then said in a slightly shaking tone. "I told you. They are let go. But before they are let go they remain in the room until they aren't ovulating anymore. After that they have to return to the isolated area every month and spend a few days in one of the rooms again, just until she either decides to take a mate or until she is no longer ovulating."

Gabriel sighed and leaned back in his seat for a second. "I'm sorry Stoker... It wasn't my intention to upset you. I merely wanted to understand things better."

"I know that Gabriel." Stoker said softly, unsure of what else to say as the human man shifted in his seat and leaned forward a little bit.

"I don't think you understand as much as you think, my friend. One of those girls that your higher ups wants their hands on is my baby sister." **  
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	28. Chapter 28

Throttle was still awake even after his _shal-la_ drifted back to sleep.

He felt a little torn between chiding the woman for not being as _upset_ as she should have been to find three males in her bed. Then he had gotten curious. Was waking up with more than one male in her bed a normal occurrence for her?

Because if it was, he and his bros would have to put a stop to such self destructive behavior.

But for now he merely chalked her reaction or lack there of, to the fact that the woman was still very exhausted. Perhaps too much to function right at the moment even after only a few hours sleep.

He lifted himself up a little bit so that he could look at her and make sure that she was asleep and smiled a little bit before he moved to lay back down normally. He had another two in a half hours before Modo and Vinny woke up.

Waking up four or five hours before everyone else was a habit that the three had developed when they had been prisoners.

Ruby shifted in her sleep and he jerked his head around to look at her again and went perfectly still as she curled up against Vinny's side and jerked all of the previously stolen covers off of the white furred alien. Causing him to snort and jerk awake and look around, a funny expression on his face before he looked down at the top of Ruby's dark head and sighed before he curled himself around her and closed his eyes again and went back to sleep.

Leaving Throttle wide awake and completely at the mercy of his own thoughts.

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Stoker made a choking sound as he stared at Gabriel wide eyed.

His mind abuzz with questions. He couldn't believe that Gabriel would allow a female of his own flesh and blood to go into the military, let alone combat where she could be hurt or killed.

He was partially tempted to ask the man if he was insane for allowing one of his female kin into such a dangerous line of work. But abruptly shut his mouth when he remembered that he was no better. After all, Carbine was his niece and he _allowed_ her to do dangerous things.

But then again he was the only male kin that Carbine had and he was far too valuable as a soldier to simply walk away. Which was why he had dragged Carbine into the service with him. He'd felt it was the only choice that he had to keep her safe.

For all he knew things were the _same_ with Gabriel and his sister. "Okay...now that I've had time to sort through what you've just told me. Maybe you should tell me which girl is your sister and what you plan to do if anything happens to her."

Gabriel gave him a chilling look as he said. "_Ruby_. And as for what I'll do if anyone lays a hand on her without permission, I think you already have a pretty good guess."

Stoker took a deep shuddering breath and mentally swore as he ran one hand through his dark hair. The human was right. He already had a damn good idea of what he would do if anything happened to his sister. And the martian race would pay for the sins of a few as a _whole_.

Jesus-_fucking_-Christ this was an intergalactic incident just waiting to happen. "You're commander is your sister?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I get that. But I don't understand what your both doing on the same team. To my knowledge of the time I spent on earth, the military wouldn't place siblings together on the same team. It's considered a taboo of sorts."

"We were placed on the same team after she went back on active duty. The military figured that since it was their partial fuck up that caused her to be taken prisoner, that they owed her a _huge_ favor."

Stoker blinked, "Partial fuck up? What do you mean?"

Gabriel steepled his fingers and looked up at the ceiling for a second. "Ruby's time in captivity happened because the higher ups were trying to weed out traitors leaking information to the enemy. I guess they figured that a few sacrifices justified the means. Ruby's team was killed off, leaving her to try and hold back the enemy on her own while trying to get over forty something civilians to safety. They went to a place that was supposed to be safe for U.S military and refugees. The village leader betrayed them and handed them over to the enemy and then Ruby was locked up and forced to watch as a group of butchers started killing off the civilians."

Stoker stared at the human with a sickened expression on his face as he digested everything that he was being told before asking, "How long was she there?"

"Six months."

"It took them that long to send someone to get her?"

"No. They could have sent someone in much sooner, they were merely killing time in the hopes that she would be dead by the time someone got there. Apparently they were worried that she would figure out what they had done."

"So they were just going to let her rot." _The sorry bastards._ Stoker thought darkly as he imagined the hell that the woman had suffered through. Being left for dead by her own people must have hurt her deeply, so it only stood to reason that she would surround herself with people that she could trust without question.

"Did she figure things out?"

"No. At least I don't think so. Her mental condition was so _unstable_ by the time she was taken from the place she was being held that she couldn't think right at all. If she had figured things out some time along the way, she's suppressed whatever she knows."

"Then how did you find out?"

"I questioned everything. A lot of the circumstances and stories that I was told, didn't make any sense to me. They all sounded so damn suspicious that I started to investigate my higher ups. I hit pay dirt and that same night walked into a secret meeting between the generals that had betrayed her and told them straight up that unless they wanted their dirty little secret plastered all over the global news channel- That they would assemble a team and send us to get my sister whether she was _dead_ or _alive_. They agreed, but just to mess with them a little bit I hacked into their bank accounts and stole millions from the lot of them and secreted it away for Ruby. Then I had them stripped of their ranks. After that I filed police complaints and had some of them arrested- You know the normal stuff."

Stoker actually gaped at the man now, thinking that there was _no_ fucking way that he had done all of those things as Gabriel cheerfully continued his list of punishments against the military that had left his sister for dead. But the more the man talked the more Stoker was starting to believe that he was all kinds of crazy and decided that if Gabriel ever went off the deep end that instead of standing in the man's way; he'd get behind him and let him go crazy.

Who knew, maybe he'd enjoy the show.


	29. Chapter 29

Ruby woke up several hours later, alone in her bed.

Her newly _fixed_ bed- Half laying on her stomach with the covers tucked firmly around her shoulders and turned over onto her side and stretched a little bit and looked around her room. A frown crossing her face as she noted that there wasn't any sign of anyone else having been there. Yet she was so sure that she had heard snoring and had talked to someone after waking up to find three people in bed with her.

Had it been a dream? Was she so desperate for rest that she had dreamt up someone laying next to her snoring? She wondered as she slowly pushed herself up on one elbow for a second before rolling herself out of bed and going about her normal morning routines.

She brushed her made her bed, brushed her teeth, and dug out some clean clothes to wear and set them on her bed then walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

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Throttle stood under the spray watching the soap suds slide down his bare legs towards the drain and mentally went over what he and his bros had to do today. First thing was first, they needed to shower and cleaned up so that they would look more presentable when they went back to their _shal-la_'s room to fix her something for breakfast.

Secondly, they needed to talk to her about the life debt that they owed her. Hopefully in a way that she would understand and figure out what she wanted them to do. They already knew that she may simply wave them off even if they explained things so that she understood. And while there was nothing _totally_ wrong with that reaction, they wouldn't be able to leave it alone because their lives were literally on the line here.

Third of all once they got the green light from her, they had to plan the Oath Exchange ceremony...

And Throttle was pretty sure that Ruby would balk when she noticed the similarities that the Oath Exchange ceremony had to human weddings.

Both parts of the ritual were eerily similar to human weddings for several reasons. 1)The formal attire that both the _shal-la_ and the_ nag-la-rou_ wore. The shal-la was expected to be dressed in shimmery white silk with a lace veil and flowers. The purpose for this was so that the ones witnessing the exchange would see the _shal-la_ as an offering as much as they would see the _nag-la-rou_ as an offering.

The meaning was meant to go both ways. A _nag-la-rou's_ oath to serve gave the _sha-la_ control over their heart, mind, body, and soul. And just like the _shal-la_ had control of those things; a _shal-la_ was like wise pledging herself and was made responsible for their happiness, health, and general well being.

It also gave the _nag-la-rou_ a measure of the same control their _shal-la_ had. Though not as much.

2)They would exchange a piece of themselves with their_ shal-la_, using either a piece of _flesh_, _fur_, or one of their family_ heirlooms_.

And 3) To finish the _first_ part of the ceremony, they sealed the Oath Exchange with a kiss.

The second part of the ceremony was what the human's referred too as the honeymoon.

The _nag-la-rou_'s would take their _shal-la_ to a room that had a large bed that had been decorated in white silk curtains and sheets with plump comfortable pillows and would bed the _shal-la_ to establish a deeper bond and to better learn what pleased their _shal-la_.

They would stay in the room for a few weeks, at least until their _shal-la_ was used to them and their habits during which time, the _nag-la-rou_'s would spend their every waking moment taking care of their _shal-la_'s every need, no matter how big or small or embarrassing.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself standing with Ruby in front of the alter of the high temple, the once Cathedral sized place where his people went to worship their gods- His breathing hitched a little bit as he imagined what Ruby would look like wearing the ceremonial dress and lace veil.

His heart quickened in his chest as he imagined doing the exchange with his own blood.

Just a small amount, a simple cut on his finger would do. He could smear it on her bottom lip and then kiss her to seal his oath to her.

He imagined tasting himself on her lips and shuddered as he slowly sank to his knees under the warm water and tried to suppress the strangely dizzying sensation building in his mind and jumped when he heard someone bang on the bathroom door a second before Modo's worried voice called out to him.

"Throttle, bro are you okay? You've been in there for a long time! Do you need someone to check on you?"

He quickly regained his senses and stood back up, not terribly surprised that he still felt a little bit dizzy and shut off the water. "I'm fine." He called back hoping that Modo would stop banging on the door and sounding worried.

Twenty minutes later Throttle, Modo and Vinny walked out of their room and started back to their _shal-la_'s room to see if she was awake. The three had showered and dressed with meticulous care so that they would make a good impression on their _shal-la_ in the light of day. When she wasn't emotionally distraught, or exhausted.

They had far too much to speak with her about for her not to pay attention.


	30. Chapter 30

The room looked empty when they walked in. Which was a little bit of a disappointment to the three alien men considering that they had gone to so much trouble to clean themselves up so that they could see their _shal-la_ and fix her breakfast and talk to her about their futures.

They had thought that she might still be asleep when they returned, considering that she rarely slept through the night. Like she had last night when they had been with her.

Vinny walked over to the bed and laid his hand on top of the sheets to see if they were still warm, his ears twitching slightly as he turned his head to look at his bros. "_Sheets are still warm_." He rasped before he spotted the small pile of clothing laying on the bed and tilted his head a little bit to the left.

Why would their_ shal-la_ make the bed and then lay clothes on it? He wondered curiously as Modo grasped the tip of his tail and tugged on it before saying in a hushed tone. "I think she's in the shower."

Both Vinny and Throttle remained silent though they took two steps closer to the bathroom and then stopped and stood there listening for a second before detecting the soft, nearly inaudible, sound of their _shal-la_'s voice humming.

The two sighed and silently moved back to where they had been before. "Okay, so she's taking a shower. No big deal..." It gave them more time to try and figure out what they were going to say to her...

And- They were coming up blank.

It was never really very easy to speak of one's traditions to an outsider. Outsiders rarely understood the _sacrifices_ and _gains_ that steeped from their traditions. For instance, even though their oath meant that they were more or less giving up control of their lives, and even a large measure of their freedom, they may gain something just as precious from swearing an oath with their _shal-la_.

Perhaps an opportunity for happiness that they may not have gotten while continuing to live their lives as soldiers.

"Lets go ahead and get started on breakfast while she's in there." Modo said in a hushed tone as he quietly started to manuver his way across the floor to the kitchen while his bros fell into step behind him.

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Ruby turned off the water and pushed the glass door open and stared at out at the fog filled room, barely able to make out the deep red of her towel sitting on the sink counter as she hummed Passive from A Perfect Circle. The lyrics of the song working their way through her mind until she was muttering them under her breath.

_As dead as dead can be, the doctor tells me._

_But I just can't believe him, ever the optimistic one_

_I'm sure of your ability to become-_

_My perfect enemy._

_Wake up (why can't you)_

_And face me (come one now)_

_Don't play dead (cause maybe)_

_Some day I will walk away and say-_

_You disappoint me, maybe your better off this way_

_Leaving you here_

_Cold and catatonic_

_I catch a brief reflection what you could-_

She stopped singing as she wiped the fog from the mirror with her hand and blinked at her own reflection and muttered, "Could and might have been..." She stared at her refection for a second before grabbing the towel and unfolding it so that she could wrap herself in it. Suddenly not wanting to look at herself in the mirror. Disgusted with herself.

Nothing changed.

Not her expression, the haunted look in her eyes, the paleness of her skin, the color of her hair-

Her growth as a woman, a daughter, a sister, a soldier and a human had been stunted. Ground to a halt along with her concept of the passage of time. Her former dreams were dead. Her former wants were ruined.

All that was left was her job as a soldier. Fighting, it seemed was all that she was good for.

She grabbed a smaller towel and started to dry her hair, beginning at the tips and working her way up so that water wouldn't drip down her back once she was dressed. If there was one thing that she hated it was looking and feeling like a drowned rat.

Once that was done she picked up the brush and ran it through her hair until it was totally tangle free then twisted the thick strands and used a hair clip to secure them into place then opened the door to leave the room so that she could go get dressed._  
><em>


	31. Chapter 31

They knew the exact moment that their _shal-la_ was out of the bathroom due to the swishing sound the door made.

Not only that but they could hear her light, bare footed steps moving across the metal floor and looked over at the female as she walked over to the bed and as pretty as one pleased, dropped the fluffy red towel that had been wrapped around her body.

Exposing the long pale slender limbs of her legs, the soft scarred globes of her bottom, the scarred ivory and red of her back and shoulders.

They remained perfectly silent and still, a little dumbfounded and shocked that she didn't seem to have noticed they were in the room with her yet and though they knew that they should look away, or clear their throats or say something to alert her to their presence, they couldn't seem to think clearly enough to do so.

They did however take the chance to look their _shal-la_ over and to notice the marks blemishing her once smooth ivory skin, as well as study the way her body was built a little more thoroughly.

Their _shal-la_ had a beautiful body. The kind that teased a mans senses and tempted him out of rational thought. And _this_ was the type of woman that the human males had passed up?

They were again stricken with the thought that all human males were idiots as she bent over a little bit and picked up her panties. Then bent over completely at the waist to pull them on, drawing the three's attention to her tight little bottom and her long legs as she pulled the lacy material up and into place before reaching for her pants.

They watched her slip the pants up her legs and into place over her panties and blinked when she did this little hopping motion, causing her lush, pink tipped breasts to sway a bit before she reached out to pick up another piece of clothing.

A bra by the looks of it. A nice pretty, lacy, mint green bra with a cute, sexy little ribbon, that rested on the small scrap of fabric in the middle of the cups. They all started to get a little bit nervous now and tried to look away but looking away at this point seemed pretty stupid since they had already come this far.

Besides knowing a little more about the scars on her body and what had caused them would help them figure out what they were going to do since they would have to bed her in the second part of the Oath Ceremony.

She lifted one arm slightly and slipped it through the strap- The three held their breath and waited for her to continue when she suddenly paused and tipped her head back a little bit and sniffed at the air.

Sub consciously they did the same and nearly swore when they noticed the scent of the food (which had been un noticable up until now) that they were fixing for her, was burning.

She turned around and looked towards the kitchen, and saw them standing there staring at her with blank looks on their faces, and paled a second before letting out an loud ear splitting scream, causing them to jump as their fur bristled and lifted her arms to cover her breasts as she took a step or so back, hit the bed with the back of her knees and fell back and cracked her head on the wall.

"_Shal-la_!" Throttle shouted in alarm and started to jump the counter and blinked when he saw a blur of gray and stopped in mid climb over the counter when he noted that Modo was already across the room and had the woman pulled up against his chest, and was wrapping her limp body in the top bed sheet that he had just yanked off of the bed.

Ruby made a soft whimpering sound and Modo growled something under his breath as he started running his fingers through her hair, causing her clip to loosen and slip from the damp strands while he checked the woman's head for a bump. "_Modo is she ok-_"

"Just take the food off of the burner, Vinny. Then you can worry about _shal-la_-" Modo said tensely as he found the small knot that was coming up on the woman's head. _Dammit, we should have known that this would happen..._ Modo thought darkly.

It was only common sense that their _shal-la_ would react so strongly to being watched while she was dressing. She was a woman after all_. _He heard Throttle and Vinny move to stand on either side of him and felt their hands on his shoulders as they leaned in and looked at Ruby anxiously.

"She's okay bros."

"_Your sure?_" Vinny rasped as Modo turned his head and looked at him for a second and noted the worried expression on his face_. _

"Yeah." Throttle and Vinny both got relieved looks on their faces and Modo felt the need to tell them to wipe those looks off of their faces. Their _shal-la_ was going to scream the place down around their heads once she regained her senses.

She was going to be furious at them and call them perverts, and bastards for spying on her._  
><em>


	32. Chapter 32

Ruby's eyes fluttered open giving her a small glimpse of the three aliens hovering over her a second before she realized three things. One- her head _hurt_. The pain spearing through her head, making it ache and throb unmercifully.

Two- The gray giant was holding her semi upright.

And three- She was half naked.

And while she was alarmed, she wasn't sure what to think about her current situation. She wanted to be pissed at them. She wanted to be furious, but her head was hurting far too much at the moment for her to be able to think clearly.

Besides they didn't exactly give off the_ I'm-going-to-do-unspeakable-things-to-you_ vibe that would have made her afraid. They were however making her a little bit uncomfortable because of her current state of undress.

She made a small sound and blinked her eyes and lifted her hands and put them against the broad chest and gave a weak push. The man tensed slightly under her hands and looked down at her with one dark eye. "_Shal-la_?"

"Let go...I need to... A shirt-" She rasped in a dazed tone of voice as she turned her head and looked around, trying to recall where she left her shirt so that she could get it and escape. Someone put something in her hand and closed her fingers around it as the gray furred alien set her down on the bed with her back against the wall and backed away a little bit as she looked down at herself, frowning when she noticed the sheet wrapped around her body then glanced down at her hand and scowled at the bunched up material of her shirt.

_I should have put you on already-_ She thought in annoyance as she shifted a little bit and started to lift her arms so that she could find the sleeves of her shirt, just barely noticing when the sheet slipped a little bit then fell away. She started to drop her shirt so that she could grab it and froze when the door opened and she heard Gabriel's voice.

"Ruby I'm back! And I brought you some goodies from the mother planet!" He said as he stepped through the door just in time to see one of the aliens sort of push her over and cover her body with his own.

Ruby had the faint thought of, _This isn't going to end well..._ A second before all hell broke loose.

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"What the hell are you doing to Ruby!" Gabriel shouted as he dropped the bags that he'd been carrying and started to rush the _furious_ looking white furred man as he stepped in front of him, blocking his view of his little sister when he felt something snake around his ankles and made a growling sound in the back of his throat when he remembered that he'd been walking with Stoker a second before the man used his tail to jerk his feet out from under him.

_Bastard. I'll get you for this._ He thought as he hit the floor with a loud bang a second before one of the other guys pounced on him and nearly crushed his ribs in the process.

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Forty five minutes later-

Stoker was glaring at them. Looking pissed or maybe he was looking irritated.

The older man's tail did this violent flicking motion as Vinny handed their _shal-la_ some medicine tablets for her headache, a sure indication that the older man wasn't irritated. He was indeed_ pissed_ at them. Why though, they had no clue.

But he kept casting nervous looks at the human man laying on the floor with a gag in his mouth and his hands and feet bound.

Their _shal-la_ popped the tablets into her mouth and swallowed them before clearing her throat and finally speaking. "Okay...after as much thought as my headache would allow I'd just like to ask one thing-" She looked at them, a look of feminine ire on her pretty face. "What were you three doing in my room earlier?"

They all looked sort of uncomfortable and shuffled their feet nervously and tried to think of how they could answer her without earning her wrath. Luckily it was Stoker who answered for them. "They probably came here to talk to you about their futures-" Stoker said as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at them like a father would look at his rambunctious children for breaking something that they weren't supposed too.

Ruby blinked and looked at Stoker with a questioning expression on her face. Futures? Why would they want to talk to _her_ about _their_ futures? What Stoker had just said didn't make any sense to her. "W-What? Why would they want to talk to me about their futures?" Ruby asked in confusion.

The human on the floor made a growling sound and thrashed around for a second as if to say, 'Yeah. Why would they want to talk to her about their futures?'

Stoker looked at her for a second then glanced at the guys and narrowed his eyes at them. "Before I answer that- Has anyone told you about some of our people's customs and traditions?" Ruby shook her head no and Stoker made a choking sound then practically shouted.

"You dumbasses haven't explained _anything_ about the Oath Ceremony to her yet!"

Throttle, Vinny and Modo all got nervous looks on their faces and sort of hung their heads and looked away. Ruby looked at them and scowled a little bit.

God they looked guilty. "What's the Oath Ceremony? And _what_ does it have to do with me?" Or the three guilt/nervous looking men shuffling around on the other side of the table. She wondered curiously. Stoker glared at the three again then reached out and grasped her hand in his and patted it and said in an almost saddened tone.

"Oh honey... It has_ everything_ to do with you and those three over there-"


	33. Chapter 33

"W-What do you mean?" Ruby asked stupidly as she cast a nervous glance at the three men across from her then back at Stoker then at the three men again. What did he mean that the Oath Ceremony had everything to do with her and the three across the table? What was he talking about?

_What the hell is going on?_

Stoker tightened his grip on her hand a fraction, drawing her attention back to his face as he said, "Well Commander, it's like this. You know what a life debt is right?"

Ruby blinked and thought for a moment before saying tentatively. "A life debt is a cultural phenomenon in which someone who is saved or who's life is spared by another becomes indebted or connected to their savior. A life debt some times includes servitude, possibly until the indebted can return the favor. Or at least that's the basic concept behind it, right." Stoker nodded his head.

"Yes, that's the basic concept. However our race put a little bit of a new spin on the life debt concept. For starters, our people made specific rules to live by when it comes to life debts. A life debt can only be established in extreme cases such as the imminent demise of the last of clan bloodline or when someone saves another from being tortured-" Stoker said and Ruby suddenly felt as if her stomach were trying to twist itself into knots.

"However, since life debts are tricky things then the one who has been saved must swear an oath of service. Entrusting their health, happiness, well being, and future to the one that they have sworn the oath too."

"You mean they swear to serve someone as slaves." She sounded so horrified that Stoker looked at Throttle, Modo and Vinny, silently willing them to jump in at any time to help explain things since the woman was their _shal-la_.

"_Yes and no-_" Vinny said suddenly.

"There is more to it than that. For starters Stoker hasn't mentioned that the person supposed to swear the oath is given a choice. They can either serve their savior of their own free will. Or they will be considered dishonorable in the eyes of our people and made to commit ritual suicide. Stoker also hasn't explained that a life debt for our people is a_ life_ long thing. We are bound to our_ shal-la_ to serve until death parts us." Throttle explained.

Ruby looked at him wide eyed, she opened and closed her mouth for a second, trying to say something but no noise came out.

It wasn't exactly the reaction that they had been expecting from her.

They had expected her to be horrified, but to be so horrified by the prospect of having them swear themselves to her service that she actually lost her ability to speak- not so much. This reaction to everything that she had been told so far made them feel uncomfortable.

"_Shal-la_, please hear us out_-_"

"_We aren't entering into servitude blindly. We have been watching you_-" Vinny rasped as he moved around the table and knelt down in front of her and gently took her hand from Stoker.

"And how you act around others-" Throttle said gently.

"And we have come to the decision that you are_ worthy_ of being our beloved _shal-la._" Modo said with finality as she looked between the three of them and slowly shook her head as it dawned on her what they were saying.

They were trying to attach themselves to her because of a life debt that they felt that they owed.

And though she could understand the reasons why, she couldn't let them do it. They had suffered a _severe_ trauma and just got their freedom back. She didn't want them to give it up again because of something so damn stupid as a supposed life debt.

Ruby stared at them for a moment then started to slowly shake her head no before turning to Stoker and saying in a slightly panicked tone. "Tell them that they don't have to do that! Tell them that they don't have to give up their freedom!" Stoker thinned his lips for a second and tried to think of what he could say to make her understand when she reached out and with a lightning fast jab of her hand knocked the air from his lungs then grabbed him by the front of his shirt and started shaking him and saying in a hysterical tone.

"Tell them that they don't have to do that! Tell them! Tell them!"

"_Shal-la_-" Modo said gently as he moved to walk around the table and stop her from shaking Stoker with in an inch of his life when he heard her say something that made him freeze up and look at her wide eyed.

"Dammit why aren't you telling them that they don't have to do this? They suffered a severe trauma for fuck sake! They shouldn't have to do something like this oath thingy! Can't you just leave them alone? Hey! Hey answer me goddamn it!"

Throttle moved around the table and gently grasped her hands, stopping her in mid motion as she let go of Stoker and turned her head to look at him. She had such a worried look on her face and Throttle knew that she was worrying about them. He pulled her hands back against her chest and gave her a reassuring smile.

"The fact that you care enough to worry so much about us is one of the reasons why we do not feel the need to fear for our futures. We know that you will take good care of us. So really we aren't giving up much of anything."

"But it's cruel." Ruby said in a shaky tone as she stared at him. He smiled at her again and ran his index finger along her cheek lovingly.

"Perhaps it seems that way _shal-la_, but you're kind enough to treat us well."

Any other protests Ruby had about the Oath Ceremony or having them serve her for the rest of their lives, died on her tongue rendering her absolutely speechless. Honestly what could she say to him after hearing such words?


	34. Chapter 34

In the days following the talk the alien men had had with her; Ruby found herself more stressed than ever.

Honestly she felt like she was on a slow maddening descent into hell.

After being brow beaten by the three mice into giving the green light on this Oath ceremony thingy (something that she still felt a little iffy about since it seemed sort of sketchy to her) the three had told her a little bit about the ceremony and what was supposed to happen then gave her a week to prepare for it.

Frankly she didn't know what the hell she was supposed to prepare for. But she was starting to get headaches from all the people coming and going in her bunker all hours of the day and night while trying to get to know the three men a little better. And fighting with Gabriel who had apparently decided that having _three_ alien men attach themselves to her wasn't enough to drive her batty as it was-

And had started doing random stupid things just to _piss_ the three aliens now living with her, off.

His plan was working like a charm too although she had had to stop herself from shooting him in the head a few times.

Like when he had broken into her bunker (she still had no idea how the hell he had managed that) and ambushed her when her three-what the hell did they call themselves again? Nag-la-koo? Nag-la-su?

She couldn't remember the exact word that they had used to refer to themselves, but they had been very, _very_ unhappy to see her brother sitting on her bed wearing nothing but a pair of knee length jean shorts.

Ruby groaned and put her hands over her face as she recalled what had happened next. It hadn't been very pretty and had left her with a bad taste in her mouth.

Her poor brother hadn't stood a chance in hell of getting close to her for_ any_ reason since every time he tried he got thrown in the air like a rag doll or kicked or punched, honestly she was starting to fear for his life.

His body was _covered_ in band aids and bruises.

She groaned again and turned over onto her side facing the wall and nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt the mattress dip behind her a second before a large furry hand lightly touched her shoulder. "_Shal-la? Are you alright_?" Vinny's damaged voice rasped close to her ear before she sighed tiredly and rolled over onto her back and looked at him.

He had a concerned look on his face. "I'm fine Vinny. I just have a headache." Ruby said with a small smile, hoping to assure him that she was fine.

But she was starting to suspect that the stress from the past few days was draining her more than normal she'd almost passed out a little while ago despite the fact that she had had an entire night of sleep, which was why she was currently in her bunker laying down. Modo had noticed her moment of weakness and had scooped her up in his arms and had carried her back to her room and put her to bed despite her protests.

Vinny frowned at her and put his hand against her forehead and made a humming sound before saying._ "That must be a hell of a headache shal-la. You've had it for days." _

"It is-" Ruby agreed as she pushed herself up a little ways and looked around. Noticing that Throttle and Modo were gone. "Where are-"

"_That guy came by here again so they're doing something about him_." Vinny said and blinked when Ruby cringed and flopped back down on the bed and covered her face with her hands again.

"Please tell me that they aren't beating the shit out of Gabriel. I need him in_ functioning_ condition, Vinny." Ruby said as she grabbed him by his bandoleers. Vinny blinked at her, at a loss about what to say. It was obvious that seeing him and his bros fighting with the blond haired human, bothered her. But until she said something it, the fighting would continue.

It was simply how their territorial urges played out.

Ruby was _their_ _shal-la_. And they, as martian men, were possessive of their _shal-la_. They had to be to do their job of taking care of her, well.

He gently pried her fingers from his bandoleers and kissed her finger tips, causing her to flush a cute pink color as he asked curiously, "_Do you care for that male_?" Ruby looked at him funny and said.

"Of course I care about him. He's part of my team."

Vinny tapped the tip of her nose with his index finger and smirked at her. "_That isn't what I meant by my question shal-la_." Ruby frowned at him as the wheels in her head turned. A blush slowly made it's way to her cheeks and she turned over onto her back facing the wall again while quickly saying,

"Ew. Kill him then. Just don't ask me any more disturbing questions."

Vinny sat there staring at her for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. He had asked so that he could find out if the woman was in love with the male but since she didn't feel like talking about it he was going to assume that meant 'yes' and talk to his bros once they returned from their errand.


	35. Chapter 35

Throttle and Modo returned to Ruby's room a few hours after they had originally left sporting bruised knuckles and smirks.

That frigging human male, Gabriel, wouldn't be hanging around their _shal-la_ without permission again for a good _long_ time. Not after the beating they had given him earlier. They walked up to the door and was about to open it when it opened on it's own accord and they wound up face to face with Vinny who stood there in the door way with his arms crossed over his chest, his expression bemused as he studied them before asking, "_Have fun_?"

Modo and Throttle both exchanged a look and smirked. Hell yeah they had had fun. Despite what they may think of the human male that had been getting on their nerves in recent days, the guy was a fairly descent fighter and he never went down easily.

Which was something to be admired in one so frail.

"Yeah-" Throttle said with a grin as he absent mindedly rubbed his sore knuckles while Modo asked.

"How is _shal-la_ doing?" He'd been worried about her since she had almost passed out earlier and under normal circumstances wouldn't have dared to leave her side, but like Throttle, he had felt that dealing with the human male was unavoidable. Which was why he and Throttle had left Vinny with her while they dealt with Gabriel. They hadn't wanted to leave her completely alone and undefended in her weakened state.

Vinny stepped back and let them in the room while he pointed towards the bed and said in wry humor, "_She hasn't moved for over an hour. So I'm assuming that she's_ _asleep_."

Modo and Throttle looked over at the bed and shook their heads. Their _shal-la_ was dead to the world from the uncomfortable look of her position half on and half off of the bed. Making them wonder just how much sleep she had been losing at night to make her put up with laying in such an awkward and cramped position.

"She's going to wake up with one _hell_ of a crick in her neck." Throttle said.

"If she doesn't end up breaking it first..." Modo commented as he walked quietly over to the bed and very carefully laid his hands on her and shifted her position so that she was laying completely on the bed then pulled the covers up over her as she stirred slightly and muttered something inaudible under her breath before settling back down.

"So did anything happen while we were away?" Throttle asked Vinny curiously. Vinny snorted and debated on telling his bros what their _shal-la_ had more or less confessed to him but wasn't sure if he should seal the human male's fate just yet. Then again maybe he should tell them what their _shal-la_ had said.

It might drive them crazy knowing that another male held her affections, but it wasn't like they were in love with her or anything. So it shouldn't matter if she had a human lover, should it?

"_Not really. Shal-la and I had a little talk about that male_."

Throttle and Modo both looked at him curiously and waited for him to explain the specifics of the talk he'd had with their _shal-la_. Vinny however didn't immediately volunteer any information. Instead he just stood there with a slightly puzzled look on his face before asking them, "_Would it matter if shal-la had a human lover?_"

He didn't ask because he cared. He was merely asking the question hypothetically.

Throttle and Modo both gave him a funny look before their expressions darkened and they both growled in unison, "Yes."

Of course it mattered if their _shal-la_ had a human lover. They were supposed to serve her in every aspect of her life once their oaths were made. Which meant that she should have no use of a human lover. Period.

If she wanted a mate, she could choose one or even all of them. If she wanted children, then they could give them to her. There was no role that a human could play in her life aside from friendship. And their territorial instincts simply wouldn't allow them to let a male that they considered competition anywhere near her. They would kill the male first.

Vinny cocked his head and studied the two older men with a curious expression before asking, "_Why does it matter? It isn't like we are in love with her-_"

Modo cut him off right there. "Maybe not right now. But later, we will be. It's simply unavoidable. The more time we spend with her, taking care of her, the more we will come to see her as our mate." Modo said as he pulled out a chair at the table and sat down and looked across the room at the woman.

Vinny had a point about them not loving her just yet, but instinct was a funny thing. And damn difficult to fight against.

Besides that, the more time they spent in her presence the more they would see what sort of person she was. And that would play a major part in awakening their dormant primitive instincts.

Modo himself, knew what it was about the woman that would trigger his primitive instincts, he could feel them nagging at him mind already. Throttle probably felt his primitive instincts stirring as well since he hated that damn human male Gabriel as much as _he_ did.

But since Vinny's primitive instincts hadn't been triggered yet, then he would need time to adjust to the idea of thinking of the woman as his mate. The same as Modo and Throttle would.


	36. Chapter 36

Two days later-

Vinny, Modo and Throttle were talking about the Oath Ceremony when they realised that they were inadequitely prepared for the ceremony that they would be under going with their _shal-la_.

They didn't have the traditional formal clothes.

Their _shal-la_ didn't have a dress or veil. She hadn't seen any of the exotic _flowers_ that would be used. Or the ruins where they would be making their oaths before their ancient god.

And so while their _shal-la_ lay resting for the night, they planned to take her off of the base sometime during the next day so that they could get some of those things out of the way. Soon after the three called it a night and curled up in their usual positions. This time Throttle and Modo slept with their _shal-la_ inbetween them while Vinny hogged Modo's covers.

The three woke up at their usual time, eight forty five a.m. Earth time, and quietly climbed out of bed and went about their morning routines so that they could eat something and get ready to go.

An hour later Ruby slowly sat up in bed and found the three of them standing next to the bed fully dressed in some leather pants, jackets and biker boots.

"Good morning _shal-la_." Throttle said cheerfully as he lay a pair of civilian shoes that he had acquired via Rimfire when he had left the room earlier to go get some Panaka (an peach colored appel like sweet fruit) for his _shal-la_ to eat for breakfast.

She looked down at the shoes that he had just laid in her lap and blinked.

The three men laughed quietly. It would seem that their _shal-la's_ mind wasn't working on all four cylinders just yet. Which was fine since it meant that they would have the run of the room just a little bit longer and could help her get ready for the trip into town.

The first thing they did once she was up, was herd her to the bathroom and then close the door so that she could take care of her morning needs and shower if she deemed it neccesary. And while she was in there they went through her Earth clothes and the civilian clothes that she had been given by Stoker upon her arrival on the base and found a stunningly beautiful mint green civilain dress, with soft pink, emerald green, and silver, floral embroidery around the neckline of the dress, the cuffs of the sleeves and the hem of the skirt and laid said dress out on her bed.

Once that was done they found one of the more lightly scented lotions, got her hair brush, and found some stuff that she could use to tie her hair back if she wanted too then busied themselves with sitting down and trying to look like they hadn't gone through her stuff.

Females were a mite touchy about stuff like that, so it was best to feign ignorance.

Twenty minutes or so later the bathroom door opened and Ruby peeked out around the corner with her long hair hanging in wet trendles around her face, clinging to her cheeks, slender shoulders and back. She stared at them _hard_ for a moment and they all took it as a sign to avert their eyes to give her a measure of modesty.

And sat there at the table staring at the wall on the opposite side of the room from where she was standing, listening to the faint rustle of clothes as she pulled them on. As soon as they heard her sigh and sit down on the bed, they knew it was safe to look again and turned themselves to look at her while she finished rubbing her hair dry with the towel around her shoulders.

She picked up her brush and was about to start running it through her hair when Throttle stood up and walked across the room and gently took the brush from her and then climbed onto the bed and settled himself behind her and started to brush her hair. "Are you guys up to something?" She asked in an almost cautious tone as Throttle ran her brush through the damp strands of hair that he had pulled away from her neck and shoulders.

Throttle stilled in mid motion for a second then sort of tugged on her hair in a small display of aggitation, causing her the tilt her head just to keep him from pulling her hair. "We are not." Throttle finally said after a moment or two of silence as he started to brush her hair again.

His _shal-la_ looked at him funny over her shoulder. Like she didn't quite believe him. He supposed that it was only natrual for her to feel suspicious of them and their actions when they had never rushed her to get ready for the day before. And they were feeling rather _excited_ at the prospect of being able to show a small part of their society and it's people to her.

Ruby said nothing as she slowly turned back around to face the front and let Throttle finish brushing her hair before handing her a rubber band which she promptly slipped around one of her wrists and then started to work her hair into a thick braid before tying it off and then stood up.

"Slip the shoes that Throttle gave to you earlier, on, _shal-la_." Modo said as he and Vinny got up and waited on her to slip on her shoes while Throttle climbed off fo the bed. Ruby gave him a puzzled look but didn't ask anything else. She just slipped her shoes on and then crossed her arms over her breasts and waited for one of them to tell her what they were in such a rush for when Vinny moved forward and grasped one of her hands and sort of half pulled, half dragged her out the door.


	37. Chapter 37

"If you three had wanted to go into town, why didn't you just say something?" Ruby griped at them as they walked along the crowded street as she looked around. For an alien race on the verge of extinction, Ruby sure was seeing a lot of people walking about.

"We wanted our outing to be a surprise for you." Modo said gently as something on one of the many booths lining the streets caught his attention and reached out and automatically grasped Ruby's arm just above the elbow to keep her from walking any further as she started to brush by him.

It simply wouldn't do for her to be kidnapped or become lost in the small city that they had decided to go to.

They had a lot of stuff that they needed to get for the ceremony. And they needed their _shal-la_ with them so that they could make sure that she got what she needed too.

"I understand that-" Ruby said in a tired tone as she pulled on her arm a little bit, trying to free it from Modo's grasp. "But I still wish that you three had at least _warned_ me of what you intended." Ruby said as Throttle and Vinny walked over to where they were and peeked over Modo's shoulders at the item that he was looking at when Vinny asked,

_"Are you upset with us for not warning you shal-la?" _Vinny rasped his ears drooping a little bit.

Ruby blinked and tipped her head back to look at the white furred mouse and flushed a little bit. She wasn't upset. She wasn't even angry at being surprised by the sudden trip off base. In fact as far as surprises went, this one was rather nice. The only thing that truly, truly bothered her was the fact that there were so many people on the streets.

She felt like she was trapped in a sardine can. The feeling was almost suffocating.

And of course it didn't help things much that many of the males walking about kept staring at her and some of them had even groped her while Throttle, Vinny and Modo weren't paying attention. It was horrible and she didn't like the feeling that she got when someone ran a hand along the curve of her ass.

It was embarrassing.

"No. No. I'm not upset." Ruby said as she reached out with her free hand and rubbed Vinny's arm to assure him that she wasn't mad or upset. Vinny looked down at her delicate hand stroking his arm and felt the need to grasp her hand and stop it's movements before things got a little out of hand since he had noticed that he was starting to feel some very _sexual_ impulses towards her.

Something that he was surprised about, all things considered.

Yet instead of forcing her to stop, he simply moved back and traded places with Throttle. Arranging it so that the tan furred man was standing exactly where he had been a second before, and their _shal-la_ was stroking Throttle's arm instead.

Throttle looked down at his arm and frowned a little bit then shook his head and looked at Modo who had just straightened his spine and was holding a piece of intricately made lace that had a lovely floral design on it.

Modo unfolded the material carefully and held it up so that both Throttle and Vinny could see it while Ruby's attention was on something else. The three men took their time trying to see if the lace would suit their _shal-la_ and in the end decided against it and found another piece of lace that they felt suited her better.

They bought the lace and put the folded piece of fabric in a special carrier box to keep it from being damaged and then moved on.

Leaving Modo to grasp Ruby's arm again to make sure that she kept up as they left the booth. "Where are we going now?" Ruby asked curiously as she pressed herself against Modo's side and gave several of the people brushing by them a suspicious look.

"We're going to go see if we can find you a new dress." Throttle said as he looked back at her and frowned when he noticed one of the males walking by her reached out his hand and groped her.

Throttle came to an abrupt stop and flattened his ears back against his head and yelled something in a tone that sent shivers down Ruby's spine and caused both Modo and Vinny to suddenly grab her and wedge her smaller body between theirs, and look around as Throttle went after the male that had touched her and disappeared into the crowd.

"_Shal-la?_ _Are you okay?"_ Vinny asked as he stepped away so that she could move away from Modo who had both of his arms wrapped around her slender body so tightly that it felt as if he were trying to crush her.

"I-I'm fine. I just didn't expect to be squished like a little bug." Ruby said half jokingly and immidiately had the smile wiped off of her face when she looked at the two. Modo and Vinny both had a slightly pained/abashed looks on their faces.

"Forgive us _shal-la_, we did not intend to cause discomfort." Modo said seriously. Ruby blinked at him and then sighed and looked away. God she felt like such a bitch for saying that. Even if it had only been her half hearted attempt at trying to hide her discomfort at being wedged between them so suddenly that she'd not been able to breathe.

"Look guys, I'm sorry that I made you think you did something wrong. But you didn't. I was only joking-" Ruby said in an effort to coax back their earlier mood. But the two mice were far too perceptive and knew that she was trying to make them feel better. And while they appreciated her efforts.

They needed her to be totally honest with them and stop trying so damn hard to spare their feelings.

They were the ones meant to protect her. Not the other way around.

"S_hal-la_ _please... Do not lie to us. Even if your trying to spare our feelings. We know that being wedged between two people isn't exactly comfortable considering how strong we are-_ " Vinny said while mentally adding. _Or how small and fragile you are in comparison. "It's not pleasant to feel trapped. Or crushed." _Ruby was about to say something else to them to assure them that she really was fine. That she hadn't been lying to them when both Vinny and Modo got funny looks on their faces and seemed to stop paying attention.

Ruby frowned and started to turn around to see what it was that held their interest now, but before she could see anything Modo reached out and grasped her arm and jerked her off balance causing her to stagger towards him, where Vinny grabbed her and promptly shoved her behind them both and then hissed.

_"Maybe she didn't see her, Modo-"_

"Maybe..." Modo said in a hushed tone as second before an loud ear splitting shriek filled the market causing all three to jump as an unfamiliar voice boomed.

**_"Modo-cub!"_**

Modo groaned and hung his head a little bit. "Oh god, why me?"


	38. Chapter 38

"Oh god, why me?" Modo groaned as his ears drooped a little and hung his head as he lifted one hand and subtlely tried to hide his face. Vinny however wasn't going to let his older friend hide from whoever it was that had shouted 'Modo-cub' and reached out and after a small struggle, pulled Modo's hand down as Ruby peeked around the two and blanched a little bit at what she saw.

There was a six foot seven inch _giant_ (she used the term loosely but- a woman?)with a deep grey mullet hairstyle, wearing an open leather vest tied at the bottom, leather chaps and calf high biker boots with buckles and chains; heading right for them.

Ruby made a squeaking sound and reached out and grasped the back of Modo's shirt causing him to turn his head and look at her for a second.

His expression apologetic as the unknown woman stopped right in front of him and glanced at Vinny as if seeing him for the first time. Vinny gave the woman a tight lipped smile and gave her an awkward sort of wave.

The woman smiled at him then looked back at Modo and said in a stern tone, "It's about time that you came out to see me, boy." Modo's tail tied itself into a knot as he stuttered out something along the lines of having been busy.

The woman didn't look impressed in the slightest as she looked the two over before noticing Ruby, peeking out from around Vinny's back. "H-e-l-l-o, what do you have hiding behind your back Modo-cub?" The giant woman asked in a sly tone as she tried to peek around the man.

Modo bristled a little bit and used one of his hands to push Ruby farther behind his and Vinny's backs in an effort to hide her. "Nothing. I have nothing. I'm not hiding anything at all that I should feel guilty for." Modo said in a slightly nervous/hysterical tone as Vinny wrapped his tail around Ruby's waist and cleared his throat drawing the woman's gaze to him as he pulled their _shal-la_ out from behind them and put his hands on her shoulders and said as clearly as his damaged voice would allow.

"_This is Ruby. She's the commander of the human soldiers that you've probably heard about_-" The woman looked at Ruby, her expression blank before she reached out with both hands and placed them on Ruby's breasts.

Ruby stiffened and turned a vivid red as both Vinny and Modo exchanged a 'fuck. we'll have to make this up to our girl' sort of look as Throttle come walking up and paused a few feet behind Modo's mother and took in the scene before bristling and growling, "Mavrick! Get'cha hands off of her!"

Modo's mother turned her head a little bit and looked at him, a wide toothy grin splitting her face as she removed her hands then turned her attention back to Ruby and made a clucking sound with her tongue. "She's so small. Her breasts are an acceptable size, but the rest of her is so fragile and delicate...it isn't good for siring children. You should warn whoever she ends up being mated too."

Ruby made a choking sound, her expression mortified as Vinny pulled her back against his chest and started running his fingers through her soft blond hair and crooning in an effort to comfort her as she babbled. "What is she saying about being mated? I can't be mated. Me and men just don't mix! Vinny tell her that I can't be mated to anyone!"

"_Hush baby. She doesn't mean it the way it sounds. You're not going to be mated_. _Me, Throttle and Modo will see to it that you aren't mated okay_." Vinny rasped in Ruby's ear as Throttle walked up and used his tail to swap Modo's mother on the rear to show his annoyance as he walked over to Vinny and grasped their _shal-la's_ wrist in his hand and pulled her from his brother's arms so that he could take over comforting her.

He pulled their _shal-la_ into his arms and bit back an amused grin as she babbled about something that she felt was relevant to the topic of 'mating'.


	39. Chapter 39

i'm going to go ahead and post this for a while because 1) it took me more than three months to write this and 2) i don't want to lose it.

so i've decided to do a week long time skip. even though it doesn't make sense right now, enjoy it. I worked really hard on it.

and please, don't be shy about telling what you think about it.

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A week later-

The Oath Ceremony had been an experience that Ruby would remember all of her life. Because it was the only time she had ever willingly participated in anything so eerily similar to a wedding ceremony where _she_ was the center of everyone's attention.

The oaths that the three martians had sworn to her had been in their native language, so she didn't really know what they had said to her. She could only imagine that it was something terribly embarrassing.

But what had really driven the idea that she was a part of an alien parody of a wedding had been the sudden change in Throttle, Modo and Vinny's behavior.

They had gone from harmless somewhat over protective males to down right _devilish_ and _predatory_.

Ruby remembered being about to ask Modo, who had made his oath to her first, why they were dressed in armor while she was wearing a white silk off the shoulder, ankle length dress and veil. But she never got the words past her lips. She had been a little startled by the antique ring with an opalescent red stone, being slipped onto her ring finger a second before Modo had lifted the veil and folded it back away from her face a second before he grasped her by the shoulders.

She vaguely recalled opening her mouth to ask him what he was doing and had been more than a little _shocked_ and _stunned_ when he lowered his head and kissed her slowly, thoroughly, stealing the air in her lungs and leaving her breathless before abruptly letting her go and then stepping back so that Throttle could make his oath next.

Everything blurred together after that. Though she remembered the toe curling kiss that Throttle gave her, leaving her more than a little shaky on her feet before letting her go and stepping back so that Vinny could make his oath to her.

Of course by this time she was starting to panic quite a bit so she didn't hear Vinny's oath to her.

She did however recall making a weird 'eek' sound the second he reached for her and putting her hands up and saying in a shaky tone, "Wait a second. Can't we talk about this-" Before she tried to scamper behind the alter and hide.

Something that had seemed to amuse the crowd of people acting as witnesses to the ceremony as Vinny stalked her a little ways and then caught her easily with the use of his tail and kissed her so hard that she fainted from the potent combination of mad kissing skills that Vinny possessed and from having what little bit of breath in her lungs- sucked out before he bothered to lift his mouth from hers.

After that she remembered waking up cradled in Modo's arms, her head resting on his shoulder and getting the distinct feeling that she had maybe bitten off a little more then she could chew as the three came to a stop outside of a large titanium door and Modo put her down but kept a hand pressed against the small of her back as if that would keep her upright if her legs buckled.

"Are you alright _shal-la_?" Vinny asked, a concerned look on his face.

Ruby scowled at him then said. "I'm fine." She was just a little bit peeved about the fact that his kiss had reduced her to a fainting girly girl. And in front of witnesses too, damn his hide.

Vinny chuckled at her and gave her a devilish grin, not the least bit sorry for that damn kiss but said nothing as Throttle opened the door and looked back at her before saying, "It's time for you to look over our new room and see if it suits your tastes, _shal-la_."

She looked at him wide eyed for a second, the nagging feeling that she was about to suffer another slightly unpleasant surprise nagging at her mind as she sighed tiredly and walked forward and brushed past him as she entered the room.

It was big.

Far bigger than she had thought it would be. The dark metal of the walls were decorated with bolt after bolt of martian white silk similar to the fabric that had been used to make her dress. There was a large bed with a canopy hanging over it, decorated with white silk and flowers similar to the ones that she held in her hand.

The soft hues of pale pink and lavender purple mixed with soft blue was a good contrast against the white.

She looked away from the bed and noted that there were no chairs to sit on. There was however a mattress like cushion in the floor a good thirty or so feet from the bed with plush pillows everywhere, what looked like a small wading pool in the far corner of the room, two doors-

One a closet and the other was obviously for the bathroom. All in all the room was very nice.

She heard the three move into the room to stand behind her and turned her head to glance at them over one of her shoulders and said in an awed tone, "It's wonderful."

"_Then you like it_?" Vinny asked almost shyly as he shifted from foot to foot.

They had asked Stoker to over see the room's decoration and had picked the bolts of silk, the colors, flowers, and had even designed the lay out of the inside of the room with the specific purpose of pleasing her.

"Yes. Very much." Ruby said as she took several steps further into the room intending to check out her new surroundings. Missing the primitive looks on their faces as the door closed.

She was over by the wading pool checking out how deep it was when she heard Modo clear his throat. Straightening her spine she turned to look at him as he motioned for her to move back over to them. Ruby walked over to them and stopped right in front of them as Modo dropped down to one knee in front of her.

"_Shal-la_, would you mind helping me get this breast plate off?" He asked politely noting her hesitation earlier when she had been moving across the room to rejoin them.

Ruby smiled at him and leaned in a little bit and put her hands on his shoulders and looked for a way to get the heavy looking armor off of him and made a funny sound as she found the fastening and started messing with it. Modo felt her fingers brush against the place where his shoulder and neck met and had to suppress the urge to lean in and bury his face against her shoulder as she unfastened the fastening and grasped the shoulder strap and gave a small tug, sliding the armor down his arm.

Modo was easily able to slip the armor off after that and paused only a second to lean in and nuzzle the curve of her jaw as he whispered, "Thank you _shal-la_."

Ruby flushed and moved back away from him suddenly feeling a little light headed and looked over at Throttle and Vinny who had helped each other out of their armor while she had been other wise occupied. Shaking her head she walked over to the bed and studied it a little more closely.

It looked like it was a little bigger than a Queen size bed and she couldn't help but wonder if all of them would be sharing this bed like they had been sharing hers for the past week. The thought embarrassed her a little bit, but was other wise welcome since she had gotten used to snuggling up against one of them while she slept.

She reached out and put her hands on the mattress and pressed down a little bit and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from giggling like a school girl. The mattress felt like one of those foam mattresses that were so comfortable that they made the person laying on them feel like they were laying on a cloud.

She glanced at the guys over her shoulder, wondering what they were doing now and was shocked to see that they had stripped down to just their pants, the dark leather hugging their lean hips, muscular thighs, and long legs. The three were bent over at the waist collecting the pieces of armor that they had shed, giving her a more than interesting view of their backsides.

They had such nice butts.

Like mouth wateringly nice.

Her face flamed red with embarrassment as it dawned on her that she was _ogling_ them. Vinny was the first to straighten his spine and look towards her and noted the vivid blush staining her face and leaned then down and said something to Throttle and Modo causing the two to jerk up and look at her before Throttle asked in his husky smokey tone as he studied her from behind his shades, "Is everything alright _shal-la_?"

Ruby made a squeaking sound at being caught looking at them and immediately looked towards the wall causing the three to laugh softly. They couldn't get over how cute and amusing their _shal-la_ got when they caught her staring at them when she didn't think that they were aware.

She always got this most flustered look on her face and made these adorable little squeaking sounds before looking away. Like she was embarrassed to be caught looking at them. It was a rather endearing quality considering the drastic change in her personality when she was with her team.

She was quiet for several minutes before finally awkwardly asking them if there were any clothes in the closet that she could change into and was slightly taken aback when Throttle commented that there probably weren't just yet but she needn't worry about changing since she would be out of her dress soon enough.

Puzzled about what he meant by his words Ruby started to ask him about it when Vinny practically ran across the room and grabbed her around the waist and swung her around in a circle before catching her in a tight hug that forced the air from her lungs. Modo and Throttle observed them for a second before Modo came to her rescue, snapping something that she didn't understand at Vinny in an angry tone.

Ruby looked at the gray furred mouse and blinked in surprise when she saw his one eye glowing a deep _violent_ red, his ears were flattened back against his head, his teeth were bared and his hands were on his hips while his tail thrashed angrily behind him.

Vinny set her on her feet and took three small, slow steps away from her and gave her a quick apology while nervously glancing at Modo who pointed at the younger man and growled, "_Don't. Do. That. Again_-" As he walked over to her and put his metal hand on the top of her head before asking. "Are you alright _shal-la_? Vinny didn't squeeze too hard did he?"

She tipped her head back and looked at him, noting that he had a worried look on his face and gave him an awkward smile. "I'm fine. He didn't squeeze too hard." She said, hoping to wipe that worried look off his face along with the faint signs of his anger. Though she wasn't entirely sure what it was he was suddenly so mad about.

He closed his eye and seemed to be counting as he tried to reign in his temper.

And when he opened his eye again, it was no longer glowing and he seemed to be as relaxed as he had been before the small display of temper and said softly as he ran the back of his metal index finger along the curve of her cheek. "You're far too kind _shal-la_..." Vinny could have really _hurt_ her when he had grabbed her up so suddenly. And though Modo knew why the younger man had grabbed her like he had, it didn't excuse the fact that he could have easily broken her bones or something if he hadn't snapped at Vinny to put her down.

He dropped his hand to his side and cleared his throat, needing to get a grasp on himself before he gave away what was supposed to occur next.

He and Throttle and Vinny had been in agreement that they wouldn't tell her about what was meant to take place after the first part of the oath ceremony. They had felt that telling her would make her ill at ease and possibly even cause her to try running from them.

They knew that she would be afraid regardless of what they did, but hopefully she wouldn't be so afraid that she would end up hurting herself when she was meant to enjoy being intimate with them.

Which was why they had agreed that aside from not telling her what they would be doing next, they would also seduce her. For the past week before the ceremony they had touched her cheek, or her hair, kissed her at random and hugged her to get her used to their touch. Late at night when they all went to bed they had taken steps to get her used to the feel of being held by someone one night, then another person the next and so on.

They had been trying to get her used to their presence in every way that they could think of. And so far it had worked.

Their _shal-la_ as it turned out was a very adaptable person. After about two or three days of living with them and being touched by them, she had gotten comfortable enough to let them see sides of her that she probably rarely showed anyone.

There was the soldier side of her. The 'curious kitten' as Throttle had dubbed the more curious and almost child like part of her personality. The awkward girl. The shy girl. The villain. And the sweet sexy temptress that had been tying them in knots for the past week.

_All_ were a part of her personality that they had gotten to see.

And _all_ were a part of what endeared her to them.

"_Shal-la_, are you hungry?" Modo heard Throttle ask and mentally pulled himself from his thoughts as Ruby answered him.

"I'm starving."

Throttle made a humming sound and walked over to the wall a few feet from their armor and ran one of his hands along the wall and pressed down on something and Ruby blinked in astonishment as the wall opened up and a table appeared, already set with dishes of food, plates, and silverware. Ruby moved over to the table and studied the spread for a second noting that the table had a mixture of earth and martian foods on it as Throttle picked up a plate and handed it to her.

She gave him a smile and muttered a soft 'thank you' then picked what she wanted to eat. There were several dishes that looked like chinese food with shrimp scampi, crab sushi, lobster tails with butter sauce, and deep fried oysters with a soy sauce like dipping sauce. There were freshly cut fruit-

Like watermelon, strawberries, honey dew, kiwi, orange slices with sweet cream dip.

There was several types of chicken dishes which didn't look very good to Ruby which was when she shifted her attention to some of the martian dishes on the table. There were several types of meat dishes, one of which looked cool so she took a little bit of it and glanced up at Vinny when he made a choking laughing sound and was a little bit puzzled when both Throttle and Modo elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up as they gave her what they hoped was encouraging smiles.

She narrowed her eyes at them for a second and was about to ask them what Vinny had been laughing about when one of them picked up a large dish piled high with cookies and held it up in front of her.

She looked at the cookies them back at the one holding the dish and scowled knowing that he was trying to distract her from asking questions and sighed when she figured that if she didn't just go with things that she'd never get any answers and grabbed some cookies and put them on her plate then walked over to the pillows and cushions on the mattress on the floor, and sat down.

The mice took a second or so to fix their plates while fussing at Vinny in hushed tones for nearly 'ruining' things before they walked over to the area she was sitting in and sat down on either side of, and across from her so that they were sitting in a cozy little circle and started eating.

Ruby cleaned most of her plate in record time. The cookies, shrimp scampi, lobster tails, oysters, strawberries, kiwi, orange slices and cookies on her plate were excellent. Which only left the little bit of the martian dish that she had decided to try on her plate.

She picked up a piece of the red meat and tore a small piece off of the corner and popped it into her mouth and chewed slowly and was stunned by how good it was. Honestly it could easily replace her favorite food. It was just that good.

She tore off another piece and put it in her mouth and couldn't help the small moan that escaped her throat as she let her eyes drift closed for a second before opening them again and caught the three men staring at her. "What?" She asked after swallowing what was in her mouth, a small frown working it's way across her face.

Throttle glanced at Modo then Vinny before looking back at her and licking his lips before asking, "Do you like the dish _shal-la_?" His lips curving up in an amused smile as she nodded her head and popped another piece of the meat into her mouth.

"It's really good." Ruby said after swallowing the piece that had been in her mouth. Vinny made a snorting snickering sound and wrapped his arms around his stomach and laughed quietly as Modo ducked his head and covered his mouth with one hand. Throttle gave the two a dark look yet couldn't seem to keep his lips from twitching.

He knew it was stupid of them to find the fact that she was eating an animal's genitals funny, but if one considered what would be happening soon then they would also find it rather ironic and humorous.

But that didn't mean that he was going to be stupid enough to tell her that she was eating some poor animal's genitals. He had no idea how she would react, though he could make a fairly educated guess.

And knew that it probably wouldn't be pleasant.

So he and the others kept their mouth shut and let her finish eating knowing that they would need to get down to business soon and didn't want their _shal-la_ riled up before they could put their seduction plan into action.

Ruby finished eating and started to get up to take her plate over to the table, not really wanting to leave it among the sea of cushions and pillows because she was afraid that it would get lost and broken. And had no sooner got to her feet when Modo reached out and grasped her wrist and kept her from moving while he and the other two got to their feet.

Vinny took her plate from her as Modo slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and said coaxingly, "Lets get you out of that dress, _shal-la_."

He maneuvered her over to the bed and stopped at the foot of the bed and turned to face her. She looked so beautiful in the traditional white dress, with her soft blond hair piled up away from her neck, some of the silken strands falling from the pins holding the thick mass in place to flirt with her nape and cheeks.

He rested one hand on one of her shoulders and wrapped his tail around her waist and pulled her against him and ran the index finger of his mechanical hand along the exposed skin of her spine causing her to shiver and lean into him as he grasped the zipper of her dress and started to pull it down.

Ruby wasn't exactly sure what Modo was doing but she was fairly sure that Throttle had said that she didn't have anything to change into. Which was probably why she was a little bit alarmed when the zipper on her dress was tugged down a little bit causing her to push at Modo's chest.

He let her go and stepped back his expression curious as he asked, "Is something wrong _shal-la_?"

"Well, sort of. Throttle said earlier that I have nothing to change into so what am I going to wear once I'm out of this dress?"

Modo visibly cringed.

_Shit._ She would ask something like that when he was trying to undress her. And he wasn't really sure what to say. He supposed that he could just_ lie_ and tell her that she could wear something of theirs but he knew that that would be a little bit of a stretch since she likely wouldn't be given any clothing until after the ceremony was totally completed.

He rubbed the nape of his neck with his flesh hand, and awkwardly tried to answer her in a way that wouldn't be so alarming to her.

"Well..._shal-la_- The thing is- There aren't any- You can't wear anything until- Oh to hell with it. We've been pulling a fast one on you to keep you calm but there isn't any point in continuing to play such stupid games when your going to freak out anyways. The truth of the matter _shal-la_ is that there are actually_ two_ parts of the oath ceremony. The actual oath itself and the second part which will take place as soon as I get you out of your dress."

Ruby frowned and was about to ask him the specifics of the second part of the ceremony when it hit her what he was talking about. Her heart stuttered in her chest, what little color in her cheeks drained away, and her eyes got impossibly wide as she stepped back away from him and lifted her arms and wrapped them around her middle and tried to think.

Sex. He meant that they would be having sex.

Just the both of them? Or would she be expected to sleep with Throttle and Vinny too?

She looked at his face, her green eyes looking for something. Some small sign that would either confirm or deny her suspicions but all she saw was...nothing. Not a blessed thing. The damn giant had his poker face on and wasn't willing to share his thoughts beyond what he already had.

She took another step away from him, this time to the side intending to inch away from him bit by bit until she had the bed and some distance between them as Vinny and Throttle walked up to join them.

"What's going on?" Throttle asked as he looked from Modo to her with a curious expression on his face.

Modo spoke to him in martian so that she wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying, and she could see the effect his words had on Throttle and Vinny almost instantly.

The two tensed and looked at her before Throttle took a small step forward and held his hand out to her and said in a coaxing voice, "_Shal-la_, sweetheart, I know that your upset about this-"

She pointed her index finger at them and mouthed the word no as she slowly shook her head. They had _no_ idea how upset she was with this situation. None at all and she found the fact that they thought they knew just a bit irritating.

If so much as one of them laid their hands on her, she'd rip out their fur and scream bloody murder!

"But this has to be done and if you never want to do it again, then you don't have too-" Throttle said as he took another small step towards her, she made a small sound and turned and ran around the corner of the bed and noted that Vinny and Modo were in different positions now.

Alarmed she looked from one to the other as it occurred to her that they were trying to trap her. _Well good frigging luck there._ She thought darkly as she moved back a few steps from the bed when Vinny lunged at her, causing him to miss her and go tumbling to the floor.

But you can't keep a good-or in this case idiot-mouse down. Vinny was back on his feet a second or so later shaking his head since he had sort of banged it on the floor and then looked at her and said, "_That wasn't very nice shal-la. I could have split my head open on the floor._"

She snorted and was about to growl, 'like I care' but knew that saying that now just because she was upset with them would be cruel and hurt them. And despite what they were trying to pull at the moment, she didn't want to hurt them...

She just didn't want to sleep with any of them.

"Serves you right for thinking that I would simply go along with this after you tried to deceive me." Ruby said as she backed up a little more. The three gave her puzzled looks then looked at each other.

"But _shal-la_ look at this from our point of view. We know how traumatic some things are and after what happened to you in Africa...we were just trying to keep you from thinking that we were going to hurt you so that you wouldn't be afraid- Wait. No. That didn't come out quite right. What I meant to say was-" Throttle said awkwardly before Modo reached out and put his hand over his mouth and took over the explanation.

"What Throttle meant to say _shal-la_. Is that in our own round about way we were trying to get you used to us so that once this_ issue_ came up you wouldn't feel so much _fear_. So it wasn't like we were trying to deceive you outright. We just didn't want to make things any harder on you than they already would be."

Ruby flushed and snarled at them. "That's no excuse for you not telling me! And I'll tell you three another thing, I have a frigging _headache_ and I'm not in the damn mood!"

Modo sighed and said gently. "Your acting like a child_ shal-la_."

"No. I'm acting like someone who suddenly has three alien guys wanting to do the horizontal mombo with her. I'm not sure if you three are aware of this but springing things like this on hapless girls- It's_ very_ upsetting."

"And would it have been as upsetting if we had come right out and told you what we intended?" Modo asked her knowing all too well what her answer would be as he took another step closer to her.

She glanced down at his feet and he grinned as she realized how close he was to her now and started to move away. But was too late. Modo lunged and caught her around the waist with one arm and lifted her up off of the floor before she could so much as scream and tossed her onto the bed.

Ruby hit the mattress and bounced twice before slowly starting to push herself up but was forced to stop when Modo was suddenly there in the space over her, his expression intense as he leaned down a little bit. Pushing her back onto the bed without touching her. "Modo-" Ruby started to say something but stopped when Modo brushed his lips across hers in a feather light caress.

"Hush sweetheart."He said softly as he nuzzled the curve of her jaw, causing her to whimper as she lifted her hands and put them against his chest, intending to push him away or pull out some of his fur or something.

"But-" She started to protest again.

"Hush." He said in a more authoritative tone as he cupped her cheek and ran his thumb along her bottom lip lovingly before she managed to said in a choked tone.

"I don't think I can do this..." Her words sounded so scared and sad that Modo couldn't help the sharp pain he felt in his chest as he kissed her lips again. This time more thoroughly before pulling back and saying softly.

"You don't have to do anything sweetheart. We'll do all the work."

Ruby closed her eyes and dropped her arms and gripped the bed sheets in her hands and tried to breathe as she felt a jolt of panic lace her blood when Modo wrapped his arms around her and bring her body closer to him as he scraped his teeth along her throat. She bit her lower lip and shuddered as her breath hitched in her throat.

She was scared stiff of what they were expecting and didn't know how to make them understand that she really wasn't sure that she could do this. It wasn't just because of the trauma of what she had seen in Africa that was holding her back. There were other things too.

Like the fact that she had never had sex before and was very uncomfortable with the concept of being with three different guys for her _first_ time.

But that wasn't her only concern about doing this. What if she got pregnant or something? Could they even impregnate her? They were similar enough to humans despite the fur and tails so maybe they could.

She might need to find out before she let anyone do anything.

But those things aside she was also more than a little self conscious about having them see the scars on the inside of her thighs and the brand mark burned into the flesh over her left hip.

She felt Modo's tail snake along her calf, under her skirt and made a squeaking sound and pushed against Modo's shoulders and kicked her legs and fairly shrieked, "Wait! Wait! Stop! Don't do that! _Modo, please_-" Modo sighed and made an irritated sound but moved back away from her and crossed his arms over his chest and asked.

"What is it now _shal-la_?"

"I'm sorry Modo I didn't mean to freak out like that. It's just... I sort of wanted to ask you something serious." Modo's expression softened a little bit as he tilted his head to the right a little bit and gave her a calculating look.

"Alright, I'll answer your question if I can but after this you have to let us get on with the ceremony."

She gaped at him in shock. "Your trying to bargain with me. _Over this_." She sounded so offended by the concept that Modo chuckled, shook his head and said.

"No love. I'm trying to_ reason_ with you. You aren't the only one nervous about this, you know."

She blinked as he smirked at her and rubbed his hands together and said quickly, "So questions all done now? Alright lets get back to business-" He started to move towards her and she made another squeaking sound and tried to quickly scurry away while shouting.

"I didn't even ask my question yet!" Modo made another irritated sound and rolled his eye at her as he grasped her ankle with his tail and dragged her back to him. Ruby shrieked and grabbed her skirt and tried to keep it from bunching up around her hips but it was too late. Modo had noticed the scars and the brand and lightly smacked her hands away as he leaned down a little bit to take a closer look.

He ran his finger tips along the thin jagged red scars criss crossing over the artery in her thighs then shifted his attention to the puckered scarlet brand mark on her hip the expression on his face darkening before he looked at her face. She must have had a strange expression on her face that she wasn't aware of.

Because one second he looked totally capable of murder and the next he was speaking to her in his native language as he grasped both of her hands in his and leaned down again and kissed the mark on her hip then shifted a little lower and nuzzled the places where she was scarred. Causing her mind to come to a screeching halt as her breath left her lungs in a shocked cry.

She could feel his breath, his nose, his lips and teeth pressed again her skin. Sending little jolts of pleasure through her body, making it hard for her to breathe and even harder for her to think. "Ah! Modo s-stop-"

She felt him run his tongue along the scars on the inside of her right thigh and lifted her hips up off of the bed as a ragged moan escaped her.

Modo knew enough about tactics and women to know when to press his advantage if an opportunity presented itself. His dark gaze flickered to his _shal-la_'s face, noting the flush staining her cheeks and the ragged sound of her breathing and smirked. After all that fuss earlier her undoing was a few kisses and licks.

The silly woman.

He slipped his hands along the inside of her knees causing her to spread her legs a little more in an unconscious gesture and he growled low in his throat and buried his face against her lace panties. She cried out and came up off of the bed to grab him but was stopped by Throttle who suddenly appeared behind her and grasped her wrists and pulled her arms back so that they were crossed over her chest as he breathed in her ear.

"Don't touch him. He's trying to make this good for you. And if you touch him now he may end up hurting you."

Ruby squirmed in his grasp as she felt Modo teasingly lick her through her panties. Her head fell back onto Throttle's shoulder and she whimpered and jerked a little bit when she felt Throttle nuzzle the curve of her jaw before kissing her shoulder before lifting his head a little bit to look at the brand on her hip and clenched his jaw in anger before nuzzling her jaw again.

The need to show her his affection in the same way Modo was, was riding him hard.

So this was why she had been so upset earlier. She hadn't wanted them to see her scars. Perhaps she felt in some way that her scars made her a disgrace as a soldier. This was far from true in their eyes. To them she was strong, honorable, and kind.

But humans had different concepts of what caused disgrace and dishonor.

For Ruby, the existence of the scars must be a painful reminder of how she hadn't been strong enough, fast enough, or cunning enough to escape her enemy before they could leave a permanent mark on her.

He wrapped his tail around her chest so that he could free his hands and let go of her wrists so that he could reach down and hike up the skirt of her dress, slowly drawing the bunched up fabric away from her waist so that he could see her scars better. The marks on the inside of her thighs didn't look bad, but he imagined that that was only because they weren't fresh.

He imagined that at one time the marks had been horrible. Tearing through the soft tissue of her skin and cutting into the arteries running through her thighs. Causing untold physical pain. The brand was a different matter.

Unlike the wounds on the inside of her thighs, the brand was a sort of mark of possession. A way of breaking her through searing a mark of ownership into her skin with a piece of white hot metal. Whoever had placed the brand against her skin had wanted her to see that mark every day for the rest of her life and see his sadistic smile in her mind.

He had wanted her to feel weak and ashamed.

But he hadn't counted on Ruby's will being much stronger than the average girl's. And Throttle would bet anything that the man responsible for the marks on his _shal-la_'s body, had _begged_ for his miserable life before he had been killed.

Throttle pulled her skirt up and exposed the pale skin of her abdomen before he let go of the fabric and reached down to lightly run his fingers over the brand mark. Ruby gasped and squirmed again. Rubbing her back against his fur. He hissed at the unexpected jolt of desire that laced his blood and moved back a little bit so that Ruby was laying on the bed again. Her head resting just an inch or so from his lap.

He unwound his tail and got down on his stomach so that his face was just a hairs breath from her own and kissed her. Slowly, gently, gradually adding pressure as he thrust his tongue inside of her mouth in a maddeningly slow rhythm as Modo slowly pulled her panties off of her.

Ruby made a keening sound in the back of her throat and lifted her hips up off of the bed, her senses reeling. She felt hot, her lungs burned in an effort to breathe, and through it all she could_ feel_ every touch, every lick, every kiss that slowly broke down her defenses and left her vulnerable and aching.

Both Modo and Throttle pulled back when they caught the scent of her arousal. She smelled like honey and dark spices. So sweet and tangy that they could almost taste her on their tongues. Modo and Throttle both groaned and bit out. "God _shal-la_-"

"Your scent-"

It was intoxicating to them.

Modo ran his finger tips along the inside of her thighs, digging the finger nails of his flesh hand into her skin. Creating faint red marks on her skin as she cried out and parted her legs unconsciously, allowing Modo enough room to settle himself between her legs and bury his face against her core, using his fingers to gently part her silken folds so that he could taste her.

Ruby jerked and squirmed in an effort to escape him, but Modo easily pinned her by gripping her hips and wrapping his tail around one of her ankles while Throttle ran his hands along her sides then caressed her breasts through her dress causing her to arch her back up off of the bed and grasp his shoulders in her hands.

Throttle made a soft growling sound as he felt her dig her finger nails into his shoulders and reached up and grasped her hands and gently pried them from him and pinned them to the mattress then kissed her hard on the mouth and waited until she made a distressed sound in the back of her throat before lifting his head.

Ruby bit her bottom lip and squirmed, trying again to escape Modo's grasp.

Again Modo tightened his grip on her hips and held her in place as he lifted his head and licked his lips as he slipped one of his hands between her legs and pushed a finger inside of her. Ruby's eyes went impossibly wide and she came up off of the bed with an alarmed/pained scream.

Jerking her hands from Throttle's grasp and slapped her hands over her mouth to stiffle the sound as she shuddered, a moan escaping her as a tear slipped down her cheek. Modo withdrew his finger from her slick heat and studied her expression for a moment before looking at his hand. Noting the faint traces of vivid red mixed with her juices on his finger tip.

_What the hell?_ He wondered curiously as he looked back at her. Throttle was leaning over her, his fingers lightly stroking her hair, her cheek, trying to comfort her while also trying to figure out the reason for her reaction to the slight invasion. Modo lifted his wet finger to his mouth and licked the tip, trying to place the reason for the blood staining his fur and paused the second he tasted their _shal-la'_s blood and juices on his tongue.

He blinked his one eye then narrowed it as Throttle lifted his head and looked at him. His expression displeased. _"What did you do?"_ The tan mouse growled in their native language as his tail thrashed angrily behind him. Modo didn't really know what to tell him. So he held his hand out to him so that he could taste her knowing that Throttle would know what _that_ taste was.

Throttle grasped his wrist in a bone crushing grip and licked his finger and then jerked his head back, his eyes wide as his breath left his lungs in a long hiss. His fur stood on end for a moment, his body tensed.

_God, that taste-_

The taste of one who had never been touched by a male. He looked down at the woman's face and tried to read her expression. But before he could she turned her head so that she wasn't looking at either of them.

She'd never felt so embarrassed before. Not even when she had been stripped of her clothes and paraded in front of the men who had captured her. Not even when they had touched her in an effort to make her fear them.

She wanted to curl up on her side and just cry for a little while. She was just that embarrassed.

She closed her eyes and jumped a little bit when she felt Throttle's fingers brush her hair back from her cheek as he spoke again to Modo. _"Did you know that she was-"_

_"Do you honestly think I wouldn't have told you if I did?"_ Modo growled at the younger man in irritation. Of course he hadn't known that their _shal-la_ was a virgin! Like Throttle and Vinny, Modo had assumed that Ruby was in a romantic relationship with Gabriel. The male certainly hung around her a lot. And he was very protective of her too.

So their assumption _was_ valid. A bit far from the target but valid never the less.

Throttle glared at Modo for a second then let og of his wrist and said in a softer tone. _"So how do you want to do this now?"_

Modo considered Throttle's words and was about to answer when one of Vinny's hands appeared in his line of vision holding a strip of red silk in grasp. Both Modo and Throttle blinked and looked up at Vinny.

Hadn't he been across the room a second ago? When had he moved?

And why hadn't they realized that he was right there? _"Blind fold her. Don't let her see what your doing or she'll panic and try to fight you-" _

The two older men stared at him with stupified expressions causing Vinny to sigh and climb onto the bed and quickly and deftly blindfolded their _shal-la_ before she could so much as react then pinned her hands to the mattress on either side of her head before she could try to pull the silk blindfold off then rasped.

_"Look if she's like this, then she can't do much to resist whatever you do to her. She has no choice but to rely on her other senses to get her through this. Which should make things considerably easier for us since her chances of getting hurt are much slimmer since her body will work against her anxiety and fear." _

Then as if to demonstrate his meaning Vinny shifted his hold on one of her wrists so that he could free his hand and lightly trailed his fingertips along the tender skin of Ruby's throat running his fingers a little lower, he started using his fingers to draw little circles along her collar bone, branching out a little bit to include her shoulder-

Ruby twitched and tried to shift her body into his touch.

Vinny smiled a little bit then drew back and let Modo and Throttle resume their earlier actions.

A few minutes later Modo grasped one of Ruby's wrists and pulled her upright and wrapped his arms around her so that her body was flush with his own. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held onto him as she buried her face against his shoulder, somehow sensing what was coming next as Modo reached between their bodies and freed himself from his pants and then gripped her hips and positioned himself at her entrance.

Ruby shivered and dug her fingernails into his back anxiously as she felt the tip of his cock slowly enter her.

Modo pushed his aching length inside of her a little bit at a time until he met with the thin barrier of her innocence and gritted his teeth and buried his face in her hair and whispered a pained sounding aplology for what he was about to do. Ruby just barely had time to register his words when he suddenly thrust all the way inside of her.

She gave a startled/pained scream and dug her fingernails into his back almost painfully as her body tensed. She felt one of Modo's hands rubbing her back in an effort to comfort her and help her relax so that he wouldn't end up hurting her further as he spoke to her in a hushed tone. But she wasn't really listening to him, she was too focused on the fact that a part of him was inside of her.

It was a peculiar feeling.

It wasn't exactly painful anymore. It was just..._different_.

Modo kissed her shoulder and curled the fingers of his flesh hand so that his nails ran lightly along the skin of her spine. She gasped and arched her back a little bit and moved against him a little bit. Modo made a soft growling sound and crushed her against him for a moment so that he could tip them so that she was pinned under him on the bed and tried moving experimentally to make sure that he wouldn't hurt her and was rewarded with a breathy moan.

"Oh thank god-" He muttered as he raised up on his elbows and kissed her as he moved his hips slowly, pausing for a second to ask. "Does it hurt when I move?" Ruby shook her head no and he got a relieved look on his face that only Throttle could see. No doubt the big guy had been cursing his size, weight, length and anything else he could think of because he had hurt their _shal-la_ for that brief instant.

Modo tugged the blindfold off of her and smiled as she blinked at him.

"Hello beautiful." He said in a husky tone as he leaned down and kissed her lips tenderly while he rocked his hips slowly.

Ruby gasped and lifted her hips a bit as she felt the tip of his cock brush against something inside of her that sent a jolt of pure heat through her. Modo must have noticed something in her expression because one second he was watching her and the next he gripped her hips in his hands and wrapped his tail around her waist and thrust deeper, just a little bit harder and she cried out and wrapped her legs around his waist in an effort to pull him closer. To take him deeper.

Oh god- That, whatever it was, felt _wonderful_.

She reached up and hooked one of her hands around his neck and pulled his head down so that she could kiss him. The action must have caught him off guard or something because the second that she touched her lips to his, his whole body jerked and he tried to pull back away from her. But she wouldn't let him.

She didn't want him going anywhere so she dug her finger nails into his skin and held him a bit more tightly as she slipped her tongue inside of his mouth and gave him a sweet, somewhat shy kiss that made him growl. He reached up and pried her hands from around his neck and pinned them to the bed and used his tail to lift her hips up a little bit and bit the curve of her shoulder as he moved against her.

She gave a startled scream as his teeth latched onto her skin then screamed again when she felt him brush against her sweet spot. She panted and turned her head so that her face was partially buried against his arm and bit her lower lip and whimpered as he licked the spot that he had bitten then let go of her wrist so that he could turn her head so that she was facing him again and kissed her hard on the lips for trying to hide herself from them.

Because hiding from them, even in the smallest of ways now was totally _unacceptable_ to them.

They needed her to look at them. To _see_ them. To _feel_ everything that they did to her body. And _know_ that they were mating with her.

She was close to cumming. He could feel it in the way her body was squeezing him tighter. Could hear it in every gasp, every scream and sob that he wrung from her throat. _This is good-_ He thought as he fisted his hands in the bed sheets on either side of her shoulders and gave one last thrust, driving her over the edge along with him.

She screamed and arched her back off of the bed almost violently and he slipped his arms around her body and crushed her against his chest, his tail tightened around her waist almost painfully, as he shuddered and came. His arms loosened around her bit and he kissed her sweaty, tear streaked face lovingly before pulling out of her and moving away so that Throttle could take his place.

Throttle moved to where Modo had been mere moments before and studied their _shal-la's_ face for a moment as Vinny walked up and sat down on the edge of the bed and frowned before saying. _"Jesus Modo, you've killed her."_

Modo who had moved to the head of the bed a good ten feet or so away, looked at Vinny with a slightly alarmed look on his face before asking, "Did her heart give out?" Throttle reached down and put one of his hands over her chest, his fingers spread wide over the soft curve under his palm. Feeling the strong rapid beat under his hand.

"Nah, big guy. She's fine. She's just fainted."

Modo got a relieved look on his face and gave a shakey sigh as he leaned back a little bit then said in a dark tone, "Vinny, I'm going to nail your sorry ass to the fucking wall for telling me that I killed our _shal-la_."

Vinny gave him a funny look but didn't say anything as he studied Ruby. Modo had made his mating to the woman last for almost two hours because he had been trying to make it good for her. And he had. But he had also exhausted her. Which wasn't good since Throttle and Vinny had yet to take their turns mating with her.

Which meant that they would have to get their turns out of the way quickly so that she could rest and recover.

Ruby stirred slightly and Throttle leaned over her and kissed her softly on the lips, trying to gauge how _aware_ and how _receptive_ she was. She parted her lips under his and made a soft whimpering sound in the back of her throat. He pulled back a little bit and smiled. It looked like she was good to go another round already. And since she was still wet he wouldn't have to worry about hurting her if he went ahead and entered her.

He pushed back away from her and ditched his pants then gathered her body into his arms and pulled her against his chest in an upright position and shifted so that she was sitting in his lap, his hard length pressed against her stomach and kissed her again as he ran his hands along her back. She stirred a bit more and lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck as her eyes fluttered open and she pulled back, breaking the kiss.

"Throttle?"

"Hey sweetheart. Are you ready for round two?" Throttle asked as he nuzzled the curve of her cheek.

Ruby made a soft humming sound and tightened her arms around him as he rubbed himself against her to let her know that he was ready if she was. Throttle felt her bury her face against his shoulder and give a small nod her head. Grasping her hips he lifted her up a little bit so that he could enter her.

Ruby felt him slip inside of her and gave a soft gasp and dug her finger nails into his shoulders and shuddered as he buried himself inside of her slick heat completely before stilling so that he could lightly run his hands along her back while he kissed the faint red marks that Modo's teeth had made on her shoulder.

He tangled his fingers in her hair, combed the thick silken strands back from her face and nipped at the side of her throat before settling one of his hands on her hips and gently rocking her in his lap.

She squeaked and then gave a breathy sigh and pressed her body against him and moaned when he rocked her in his lap again. Throttle groaned and tightened his one arm around her shoulders and said in a husky tone, "I need to pick up the pace or you won't last long enough for Vinny to have his turn."

He toppled them so that she was pinned on her back under him and gave her a toe curling kiss as he set a quicker rhythm. He swallowed Ruby's cry of pleasure and growled low in his throat as he tore his mouth from hers and pressed his lips against the hollow of her throat and nipped, licked, and lightly sucked the skin there until Ruby was sobbing and bucking under him.

He could feel her body tightening around him, knew that she was about to cum and leaned down and gave her a sweet lingering kiss, swallowing her scream as she came. He held her trembling body for a moment, kissed her cheeks, her eye lids, and her lips before pulling away and disappearing from her sight.

She lay there trying to catch her breath when she felt an arm slip under her and she was pulled into an upright position and dragged back against Vinny's torso then turned to face Modo and Throttle. Ruby was only dimly aware of the two watching as Vinny re entered her in one forceful thrust.

She made a slight choking sound as she felt Vinny's chest against her back, his tail wrapped firmly into place around her hips, his hands skimming along her bare arms until they reached her hands and covered them with his own before he started moving inside of her.

Vinny's pace was agonizingly slow. In fact after about ten minutes or so Ruby felt as if he were torturing her. But he quickened his pace after a bit knowing that she wouldn't last much longer and made her cum hard enough to pass out before he finished himself off and slipped out of her.

She wasn't aware of much after Vinny had his turn. Except maybe at one point she felt warm furry fingers running along the nape of her neck, then down her spine. But she couldn't be sure of anything. She was pretty out of it.

She slept like a log, perhaps for the first time in a long time, and eventually woke up snuggled between two hard male bodies. There was a brief moment when she started to panic, thinking that maybe she was still in the jungle and the sick bastards had finally gotten her but her fears were quickly put to rest by the furry chest in front of her face. Ruby blinked her eyes and looked at the face of the person the chest belonged too and saw Vinny on one side of her and Throttle on the other, both sound asleep.

She slowly shifted away from him and pushed herself upright a little bit and peeked over Throttle's shoulder, noting that Modo was MIA. _Well that's not good. _Especially since the man liked sleeping in almost as much as she did.

She shifted again and somehow managed to climb out of the bed, taking one of the sheets with her for modesty's sake and wrapped it around her as she stood at the edge of the bed watching Throttle and Vinny both snooze away. She shook her head a little bit and tied the sheet into place with a small knot around the back of her neck, giving her one of those fancy wrap around dresses look.

And stepped away from the bed and silently padded across the room to where the bathroom was and started to reach out to knock when the door opened and Modo appeared in the door way with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. "_Shal-la_? What are you doing out of bed?" Modo asked with a frown after a second or so of staring at her as if he'd never seen her before.

Ruby flushed a little bit and she fidgeted unsure of what she should say to him. What did a woman say to someone who had taken her virginity and had made her faint from the pleasure? Somehow a simple 'thanks' seemed just a little bit insulting.

"_Sha-la_?" Modo said again, this time a little firmer as he waved a hand in front of her face. She jerked a little bit and looked at him wide eyed for a moment then gave him a nervous look that had him narrowing his one eye at her.

It had only been two hours since their coupling and by Modo's estimation their _shal-la_ should have slept for more than a few hours due to exhaustion. Yet here she was awake, with dark circles under her pretty green eyes, looking as if she hadn't slept for a month.

"I-I couldn't sleep." She finally said. As if the three stuttered words explained why she was up. To a degree they did yet at the same time they didn't. Modo was about to say something to convince her to go back to bed when she stepped around him and marched herself into the bathroom then not so subtly pushed him out of the door way so that she could close it.

Leaving him standing there with his hands on his hips glaring at the door and thinking about her reaction to him.

She was still acting nervous, skittish and jumpy. He'd have to do something about that or things could get bad for them all later on. But at the same time he first needed to know what it was that was making her so nervous and such.

He was pretty sure that she was reacting to him because of what happened a few hours ago. Human women were just _odd_ after sex sometimes.

They didn't know what to say. Or do. Hell in his experience human women had a bad tendency to get so nervous that they actually tried to run away from him after sex. It wasn't a huge turn on, but at least he understood them to a degree.

He sighed and glanced towards the bed, wishing that Throttle and Vinny were both awake right now but didn't mind that they weren't as he rested his back against the wall and waited for his _shal-la_ to come out of hiding.

Ruby must have paced back and forth for several minutes before deciding to shower in an effort to help herself relax a little bit while stalling for time. She still didn't know what to say to Modo. Or Throttle. Nor Vinny about anything that had happened a few hours ago. To be perfectly honest she wasn't even sure she could look any of them in the eye again, she was so embarrassed.

She got out of the shower after scrubbing herself as clean as she could, and washing her hair and sat herself on the cool metal counter across from the shower and dripped dry for several minutes before picking up the sheet that she had used to cover herself before, and wrapping it tightly around her body in a form fitting halter style dress that tied at her nape and left her better able to move.

Once that was done she quickly finger combed her hair before stepping up to the door and opening it. Modo pushed away from the wall automatically the second the door started to open and placed himself directly in her way so that she couldn't ignore him.

It had almost been an hour since his _shal-la_ had escaped him and in that time his fur had dried and he'd toyed with the idea of putting some pants on but decided against it. His _shal-la_ needed to become more comfortable with his lack of inhibitions.

Which meant that he and his bros would have to expose her to their nudity among other things and encurage her to feel free to become less inhibited herself. Ruby tipped her head back and looked at him standing there in her way with his arms crossed over his chest and frowned. "Modo?"

He made a humming sound as his dark eye looked her over. Well, well, his _shal-la_ was quite inventive with the bed sheets wasn't she? "Who else would I be _shal-la_?" He asked in a husky tone, his lips curving up a little bit at the corners as his eye landed on one of the love bites he'd placed on her skin. The mark standing out in dark contrast against the creamy paleness of her throat and shoulders.

"No one... unless you have an evil twin I don't know about."

He chuckled. "I have no evil twins _shal-la. _Now wanna tell me why you were acting so skittish a few minutes ago?" He asked in a more serious tone, all playfulness suddenly gone.

She blinked at him and opened her mouth to say that she didn't know what to say to him about what had happened before and abruptly snapped her mouth closed and looked down at her bare feet, feeling awkward.

Modo stood there waiting for her to tell him what was up and tilted his head to the side a little bit and stared at her before sighing and dropping his arms to his sides. "_Shal-la_, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"N-Nothing's wrong. I-I just don't know what to say to you about what happened..." Ruby said as she fideted with the make shift skirt that she'd made out of the sheet. Modo was silent for a moment not really understanding the problem.

What did she mean exactly that she didn't know what to say to him? Did she mean that she was embarrassed about what had happened or did she mean something else? Was she feeling ashamed? Unworthy of him and his bros perhaps?

_Dammit this is frustrating._ He thought darkly as she brushed by him. He noticed that she was being very careful not to touch him. And he was already fighting himself against reaching out and wrapping his arms around her.

He turned and glanced over at the bed, wondering if he should wake his bros up but quickly shrugged off that thought since they needed rest as much as their stubborn, beautiful _shal-la_ did. He made a soft growling sound and started after Ruby intending to break down whatever barrior she was trying to erect in her mind and heart.

She had a plate in her hand and was getting something to eat when he came up behind her and slipped his arms around her, startling her if the way she jumped was any indication at all. "Modo! What are you doing?"

"Nothing." He muttered evasively as he wrapped her tail around her waist and pulled her back against him a little bit and took the plate from her hand and set it down on the table. "I just wanted to hold you a moment or so." He said gently as he leaned his head down and kissed her shoulder to see how she'd react.

She jerked and sort of flinched and he knew then that she was trying to hide herself and push them away. Physically. Emotionally. He made another frustrated growling sound and opened his mouth to nip sharply at her bare shoulder, causing her to yelp in surprise and jerk in his grasp as he hissed in her ear in an angry tone. "We told you before that hiding isn't permitted... So why are you trying to withdraw into yourself and hide from us? Do you really think us so unworthy of you?"

Ruby tipped her head back until it touched his chest and looked up at him, her expression pained. It wasn't that she thought Modo, Throttle and Vinny were unworthy of anything. She just didn't know how to deal with them. The intimate act that she had shared with them had made her feel...well, like a slut really.

Like _she_ was the unworthy one. After all, losing one's virginity to three different men was a little bit..._unnatural_. She was feeling embarrassed, and a bit humiliated and unsure of what to do now. "That's not it Modo. There's nothing at all wrong with you or Vinny or Throttle. I-I just..."

"Just what?" Modo prompted as he ran his tongue along the spot he'd nipped at to sooth the sting while he waited for her to answer him. She was quiet several second before lowering her head and muttering.

"Nevermind. It's nothing. Can I eat something now?" She asked in a tired tone that he'd never heard before. He lifted his head and used one of his hands to lift and turn her head so that he could see her face again and felt his heart give a painful sqeeze in his chest at her expression.

She had a blank look on her face. As if she was no longer with him. Or worse, like she was no longer alive. That look frightened him to his very core. He abruptly let her go and walked quickly across the room and grabbed both Throttle and Vinny by the ankles and dragged them out of bed, startling the two awake.


	40. Chapter 40

Throttle and Vinny both sat on the floor at Modo's feet, yawning while the older man glared down at them while they completely woke themselves up enough to bother asking. "Is there a reason you dragged us out of bed? That little stunt might have disturbed our _shal-la_." Throttle said in a rough gravely tone as his tail did this annoyed little flicking motion.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about disturbing _shal-la_. She's awake already." Modo growled as the two blinked up at him, uncomprehending. The two leaned a little bit to the left and peered around his legs and blinked again when they saw Ruby sitting on the mound of pillows in the middle of the room.

Vinny grunted and Throttle hummed as they straightened their spines and looked back at Modo. _"So... Why did you wake us up?" _Vinny asked in his broken raspy voice.

"There's something wrong with our _shal-la_." Modo said in an irked tone, trying hard to resist the urge to give in to temptation and kick them both in the head. God the two had become thick skulled during their time in captivity.

Vinny and Throttle both stiffened a bit at his words and then got to their feet and headed towards the woman, the both of them curious to see what Modo meant when he said that something was wrong with her.

She'd been fine earlier. At least as far as they knew she had been fine.

They reached the pile of cushions and dropped down onto the pile across from her and noticed her visibly tense before she seemed to force herself to relax. _Okay, that_ _isn't normal. _They both thought as she finished off her food and was startled to find the two suddenly in her personal space.

Vinny took her plate and fork while Throttle held himself perfectly still for a moment then leaned in a bit to press his mouth against hers in a chaste kiss before moving back a little bit and asking, "What's wrong?" As Modo made his way over to them and dropped down onto the cushions beside him.

Ruby looked at him with that blank, hollowed expression and Throttle recoiled as if he'd just been slapped. _Jesus! _It looked like Modo hadn't been kidding when he had said that something was wrong. _"Shal-la?" _Vinny rasped as he rejoined them, his eyes going between Ruby and his bros. His expression curious as he sat back down. Ruby didn't look at him and he scratched one of his cheeks and looked at Modo and Throttle.

Modo looked like he wanted to rip someone's head off. He was practically vibrating with anger and rage and worry. Throttle- had a stricken expression on his face. Like someone he knew had just died. Vinny looked at Ruby and cocked his head, his quick mind analyzing snippets of information that he knew about the woman. It took him about three minutes to figure out the problem.

_"Shal-la-" _

"Hn. What is it Vinny?" Ruby asked in a hollow tone that had the white mouse shaking his head. Silly girl. She felt the way she felt because she still didn't understand the situation. She had been untouched and they had each taken turns loving her. Of course she would feel unsettled and possibly even unworthy. Those thoughts and doubts were natrual.

_"Modo wants you again."_ Vinny rasped as the gray furred elder turned his head to look at him wide eyed, his jaw slack. It would have been the sort of expression that Vinny would ususally laugh at if not for the fact that this matter was serious and demanded his total attention.

_"And since being with all three of us is...uncomfortable to you emotionally... Then Modo will be your designated partner for sex, should you feel the need for release. However- every few weeks or so we'll trade places with him. Since you are feeling like little more than a_ _toy at the moment-" _

Both Throttle and Modo made angry growling sounds low in their throats and Vinny lifted a hand and silenced them so that he could finish speaking. "_Then this is the best way to let us take care of all of your needs without torturing yourself over something that you know to be false. When you are more comfortable with being intimate with all three of us we will try bonding with you again like last night. But if the feeling persists then you should say something." _

He reached out and used his hand to grasp Ruby's chin and turn her head to face them. _"There is nothing wrong with you or what your thinking now. It's normal because of the unusual circumstances." _

Ruby gave him a disbelieving look and Vinny leaned in and kissed her cheek then sat back and motioned for Modo to move over to where she was. Modo started to shake his head no when Ruby held her hand out to him. He looked confused for a moment and glanced over at Vinny as the younger man leaned over and rasped in a much softer tone than usual. _"You have to do this Modo. She has to get used to all of us. You have more patience and are more skilled at intimacy. You can make things better for her than Throttle or I can. Once she's used to you she won't really be able to distinguish you from us. It will make things easier for her..."_

"I don't think-" Modo started to say when Vinny leaned over a bit more and nipped at his shoulder. Modo's fur stood up and he shoved the younger man back with a threatening growl. But Vinny wasn't impressed by his act of aggression.

_"The only reason you would have not to do this is if she starts fighting. If that happens then back off immidiately." _Modo nodded his head but still looked a little bit uncomfortable as he slipped one of his hands in Ruby's and then pulled her over so that she fell against him. He wrapped his arms around her and looked pointedly at Throttle and Vinny until they both got up and went back to bed.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Gabriel sat in the cafeteria waiting for the others when he caught sight of Rimfire walking in with Jenna and raised a brow. _Well. _The two looked rather cozy. _I wonder if they decided to get together or something. _He thought and had to look away when Jenna hooked a hand around Rimfire's nape and pulled him down just enough to kiss him on the cheek.

"Thanks, Rim." She said as the mouse flushed and stammered something difficult to understand and all but ran for the door as Gene was coming in.

Gene gave the embarrassed mouse an odd look when he almost ran into him but said nothing as he walked up behind Jenna and slung an arm across her shoulders and asked in a hushed tone, "What's up with you and the mousy?"

Jenna looked a little startled by his question then smiled. "Well, ever since Stoker found out about something that the martian higher ups were planning, he's had Rimfire escort me to and from my room to make sure that nothing happens to me." Gene frowned and looked confused as Gabriel said.

"It's because she's a girl. The higher ups are probably thinking that they can draft her and Ruby into the breeding program here on mars."

"Breeding program?" Gene asked stupidly as he looked at the blond. Gabriel hummed and nodded his head as he crossed his arms and sat back a little bit. Just enough to get comfortable without falling on his ass.

"It's because their people are dying. They have far too few women and children. Humans are believed to be compatible enough to mate with." Jenna explained as Gene got a pissed look on his face and growled.

"Where is the commander?"

"She's busy." Gabriel deadpanned as Gene snarled.

"Busy my ass, she has never missed a meeting with us! Where is she? Does she know about this shit?"

"I'm sure that if she doesn't yet, she will by the time we see her again. Now please be quiet and we'll talk more about this later." Gabriel said smoothly as the others came in and joined them.


	41. Chapter 41

The second Vinny and Throttle were all the way back across the room Ruby glanced over at Modo with a small frown on her face and asked, "You want me again?" Modo's fur bristled a little bit. Vinny never should have opened his mouth and told her that since they had promised her that she would only need to be intimate with them _once_.

But at the same time he wasn't going to coddle or lie to her. Not about this. "I do." He said honestly as he reached out and took her small hands in his and lifted them so that she could see him lace their fingers together.

"But you said- Why would you-" Modo looked at her, his expression unreadable as she finally managed to stammer out. "I-I d-don't u-under-stand."

"I know you don't _shal-la. _But coupling with us a few times while here is _necessary_ to protect you better-" Modo said gently. Ruby blinked at him and opened her mouth to ask him what exactly he meant when he released her hands and bowed his head and said softly.

"Forgive me _shal-la _for my explanation is lacking much in detail. But I was asked many years ago not to disclose certain information about our species and it's weaknesses. I gave my word then, just like I gave my word to you earlier today...and I cannot break either oath. All I can tell you is that the more comfortable you are with acts of intimacy with us, the better off you'll be."

Ruby frowned, still not understanding what he meant. But decided not to ask anymore since she probably wouldn't like the answers he _managed _to give her anyways.

She sighed and closed her eyes and tried not to think on what it was Modo was both trying to tell her and not trying to tell her when she felt his hands against her face and she opened her eyes to find him just a hairs breath away, tense, unmoving-

Dear god he was going to pounce on her wasn't he? She thought as his breath fanned her face. She brought her hands up to ward him off but knew that it was far too late for that now. The moment her hands touched his furry chest, he toppled them both over on the cushions.

Ruby squeaked as her back hit the cushions under her while Modo braced himself up on one elbow to keep from crushing her with his heavy weight. "Modo!" She squeaked as her hands automatically went to his shoulders.

The grey furred mouse lowered his head a bit and rubbed the side of his face against her cheek with slow deliberate movements. His breath tickling the sensitive skin of her cheek, ear and neck. Making her twitch and squirm under him. She squirmed in one particular way that caused her smooth legs to brush against his hard body as the skirt of her makeshift dress, parted.

It was like heaven and hell rolled all into one for Modo. His _shal-la's _very breath was erotic to him.

_Calm yourself big guy, this is what mating does to you. It makes everything your beloved does turn you on in a way that's like having a switch flipped in your head. Just remember that a few hours ago shal-la was an innocent. And that despite her lack of a virginity now, she's still very much is an innocent. _He thought as he leaned down the last bit, closing the space between them and captured her lips before she could even protest.

Ruby made a soft sound that was half whimper half moan as he slipped his tongue past her lips and into the moist cavern of her mouth.

She gripped his fur in her hands and pulled at it a little, wanting him to back off a bit so that they could talk things through because despite the fact that he and the others had taken her innocence in a rather spactacular way- she was still so mortified by what had happened that she wasn't all that eager to do it again anytime soon.

In fact, if she thought she could get away with it there would be a rule about sex and her current lack for it. But she doubted that she would get two words out before they would pounce on her.

Modo felt her pull out some of his fur and pulled back just enough to growl before leaning his head down again to recapture her lips. But this time Ruby has having none of it. She put her hands against his chest and _pushed_, indicating that she wanted him to back off. He mentally sighed, wondering what he had done wrong now but backed off like she wanted. "_Shal-la_ you can't keep-" Modo started to say when Ruby cut him off.

"Shut up! Do you have any idea what I'm feeling right now aside from confusion? You keep hinting that's it's necessary for us to have sex but you never really explain why. You just hint at stuff then just expect me to fall in line and let you do whatever!" Ruby smacked her hands against Modo's chest.

"I was a virgin a few hours a goddamn you and I have no idea what to do now! I don't even feel like myself!" She shouted as she smacked his chest a few more times, startling him as well as Vinny and Throttle who both had been faking sleep in an effort to make sure that things went well between their _shal-la _and Modo.

"_Shal-la _please calm down-" Modo said in a gentle tone as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and grabbed both of her hands to keep her from smacking him again. While the impacts of her smacks had been flat palmed and fairly easy, he felt as if he had just been punched in the gut- several times.

And it wasn't a feeling that he found particularly pleasant.

Vinny sighed and covered his face with one hand as their _shal-la _continued to throw her tantrum as Throttle muttered darkly. "Looks like we'll have to do things the hard way..._again_."


	42. Chapter 42

Modo held his sleeping _shal-la_ cradled against his body and gently ran his fingers through her soft hair. Silently going over everything that had happened in the past hour.

He had known that his _shal-la_ didn't understand their ways, and that she would likely be difficult at times but she had shocked him there towards the end of her tantrum when she had _actually_ burst into tears and cried herself to sleep.

For the second time in so many weeks he was reminded of just how fragile she really was.

And as much as it had horrified him to let her do so, he simply couldn't tell her that the reason behind the need for intimacy had to do with the breeding program. Because by the time they all left the room that they had been put in she needed to be carrying the scent of _one_ or all _three_ of them.

Or their fellow mouse would see her as fair game and try to have her mated.

And while they hadn't forced a mating to occur to date.

There were certain pitfalls to the breeding program that _only_ they knew about. Like the fact that some females were stalked by males desperate to claim a mate for themselves. Or that some mated females were abused and more or less turned into slaves instead of being treated well.

Then there was the fact that the higher up's were close to declairing martial law. And when that happened...

Modo shuttered to even think about it because the few females with free will left would wind up dead from the horrors forced upon them. And then the species would die.

He glanced down at his _shal-la_ and let his ears droop slightly and sighed softly. He didn't want her to suffer from anything to do with the breeding program. He wanted her safe and sound, where he and his bros could see and touch her whenever they needed too.

He ran a knuckle along the delicate curve of her cheek and pulled back when his fur became damp and felt his chest ache in response. Gathering her a bit more closely to him, he settled her head in the crook of his shoulder and felt a slight tug on the tip of his tail and turned his head just enough to see Throttle and Vinny crouched down just behind him. Shoulder to shoulder.

"Is she out?" Throttle asked curiously.

Modo spread his fingers and tipped Ruby's head until it fell all the way back on her neck. _Of course she is out, she's simply too_ _emotionally_ _exhausted to be otherwise._ Modo thought as Vinny reached out and carefully used his fingertips to brush her bangs back from her face. _"Yup. She's out." _

"Great. Now what do we do?"

"Let her sleep-"

_"Stratigize about how to proceed." _Modo shook his head no. After seeing her break down earlier he doubted that it would be wise to gang up on her. Even if it was in her best interest. At this point he wasn't sure if she could handle everything. She was already suffering far more than she should so he felt he had to put his foot down.

"No stratigizing Vinny. We can't gang up on her and force her to come to her senses. She would suffer even deeper physcological damages if we tried." Modo said in a disapproving tone as he placed a hand under her head to support it.

He wasn't sure why laying with her head hanging back like that hadn't woken her yet, but if it were him...he'd have cricks in his neck that he'd probably never get rid of.

"Well, if we aren't going to stratigize- Then what are we going to do?" Throttle asked.

"We give her some space and time and let her come to us with her needs."

Throttle and Vinny were both silent as they mulled over what Modo had just said. And to an extent their bro was right, they should back off and wait for her to come to them. The only problem with actually doing so is that Ruby was very strong willed and had it set in her mind that things would be a certain way.

Which meant that they could wait from now until doomsday and she may never come to them of her own occord. Throttle made a low frustrated sound in the back of his throat and scratched behind one of his ears.

_Waiting is no good. The second we step out of this room we might as well hand her off to the nearest male. _Throttle thought darkly as he tried to think up a solution.

Vinny looked like he was trying to do the same while Modo was trying hard not to get his fingers tangled in her hair while she slept.


	43. Chapter 43

Throttle had a vague idea of what to do after thinking for several hours after Modo put their _shal-la_ to bed and lay down next to her to grab a nap. Obviously knowing that they should expect more resistance once Ruby woke up.

His plan was simple yet complicated at the same time because it would mean going against Modo's warning. Mainly because Throttle firmly believed that their _shal-la_ could handle whatever happened next. But to achieve the collective goals of himself and his bros he would have to play the 'favorites' card.

Which meant that he or Vinny would have to trade places with Modo as Ruby's lover.

Which would put him or Vinny in a precarious position with their eldest bro. But he figured it should be worth it once Ruby carried someone's scent so that she would be safe from the higher ups and their hidden agendas.

Walking over to the bed with the kind of stealth that came from years of practiced killing, Throttle looked down at his bro and their little human and smiled faintly at the sight of Ruby tucked against Modo's body.

His metal arm laying draped over her waist while her head rested on his other arms bicep, his arm curved at the elbow so that his fingers were lightly touching her head while he rested his chin against her forehead. Modo was already showing signs of bonding. He could tell from the older male's need to be close to their _shal-la_ even in his sleep, that dealing with him was going to be a problem.

Exhaling quietly he lifted a hand to run it through his hair in an annoyed motion. He really didn't want Modo to break his jaw, but they didn't have a choice in this. If they waited for their _shal-la_ to come to them for anything- they'd be waiting from now till doomsday because of her fears.

So if one thought logically, this really was for the best.

Turning he started to move away from the bed when Ruby muttered in a groggy sounding voice, "Jesus Christ...how do I get free of this big guy?" Waking Modo just long enough to remove his arm from her waist and let her scramble over to the edge of the bed before the grey furred mouse yawned and turned over then went right back to sleep.

Throttle chuckled slightly then turned his attention to Ruby and held his hand out to her. "_Shal-la_ would you like a hand?" He asked politely, hoping that she would think he wasn't acting suspicious. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't counted on his _shal-la's _keener sense of danger kicking in right at that moment as she gave him a funny look before bringing her arms to her chest and glaring at him as if to say, _'Back off!' _as she slowly climbed off of the bed.

This time he couldn't hold back his chuckle of amusement though he did drop his arm and wait until she was off of the bed before leaning down and licking her cheek in a display of affection.

Startling her as Vinny walked up and subtely shouldered him aside and wiped at her cheek while giving Throttle a peculiar look. _"Shal-la doesn't like being licked on the face." _

Throttle hummed and crossed his arms as he watched his younger bro slip his arm around Ruby's slender shoulders and asked, "How do you know what our _shal-la_ likes or not?"

_"Because she's a lady." _Vinny replied, as if it were the most logical thing in the world while his tail twitched slightly in agitation. Throttle gave him an _'oh'_ look as Vinny started to lead Ruby away from the bed, towards the pile of cushions in the middle of the floor so that she could sit as Throttle cocked his head and mulled over Vinny's reply. And growled softly when he realised that his bro was right.

And that was also a part of their current problem.

Ruby was so ladylike when she was out of uniform that it bordered on prudish. Which was unusual for a female in a high stress work environment. _God could this situation get any more annoying?_ He wondered in irritation as he followed close behind Ruby and Vinny while trying to think of a way to loosen their _shal-la_ up enough for his plan would work.


	44. Chapter 44

Two days later-

Modo was one seriously sadistic bastard, Throttle thought as he glared at his brother from across the cushion strewn eating/lounge area.

It had been two days since he and Vinny had come up with a plan to help Ruby come out of her shell, so to speak and Throttle had made a serious mistake in underestimating the knowledge of his older brother when he had decided to wait to put his plans to help their _shal-la _into action.

Apparently Modo had been onto the plan that he and Vinny had come up with before they had even had a damned plan. And as such, Modo had taken it upon himself as the older brother and Ruby's current designated partner- to keep them from following through with said plan.

And true to character, the grey furred giant had been doing everything that he possibly could to keep them from doing anything short of stealing a few kisses from Ruby whenever they thought the big guy wasn't looking.

However today seemed to be different.

Today for some reason his _sha-la _was currently sitting in Modo's lap wearing one of the traditional martian outfits that had been left for them. To mark them as someone's _nag-la-ru's. _

Apparently though it went against the rules and customs of their people, Modo had decided that if she wanted clothing so badly then he would fix her up with one of his outfits.

The nearly transparent, shimmering opalescent mint green silk had been wrapped around Ruby's body in a way that reminded Throttle of the outfit the earth woman from the old TV show, I Dream of Genie, had worn. It fit her so perfectly that one would think it was meant to fit her like a glove. Her hair had been professionally styled and hung down from a ponytail in silky, wild looking curls that gave her a more primitive and untouchable look.

She looked as beautiful as an ancient princess. Everything about her appearance was meant to tease and tantalize their senses. From the hair style to the way Modo had dressed her, everything was meant to drive them crazy with desire.

And damn his brother's hide, it was working.

Everytime he looked at Ruby and saw how his brother touched her or fed her or heard the rumbling purr of affection that vibrated in his chest- Throttle wanted to rip his heart out and lay it at their _shal-la's _dainty little feet in an effort to get her to pay such close attention to him instead.

But since he doubted that his _shal-la_ would let him touch her ever again if he killed his brother since at the moment he seemed to be in her favor. Besides, Throttle knew deep down that his _sha-la _wasn't watching Modo out of affection. Not true affection anyways.

No, she was watching his every action out of wariness.

Since Modo had been appointed her designated partner, he had taken her more times than Throttle had managed to keep track of. And though she didn't fight him anymore, Throttle knew that she didn't exactly enjoy the sex. Which saddened him and his brothers to know since they were trying so hard to please her. But then maybe that was the problem.

She knew that they were obligated to please her now that they had taken the 'oath'. And that in itself made her feel obligated to make things as simple as she could for them.

It was an endless cycle.

Modo shifted, drawing Throttle's gaze as he stood up, holding Ruby bridal style in his arms as he muttered a soft, "Excuse me bro's." And started to walk away. Heading in the direction of the bed.

Ruby wrapped her arms around his neck and settled her chin on the back of one of her hands and asked in a small voice tinged with weariness, "Are we going to do it again?"

Modo's ears twitched slightly as he went over her question in his mind. They'd done it four times today already. And he knew that despite how careful he tried to be, he sometimes got out of hand, wearing her out as well as making her body sore. Knowing this made his choice simple enough, he'd had enough for now. She needed to rest now that she had eaten something. "No _sha-la. _We're not going to do it again... Not today."

She sighed in relief and startled him when she lifted her head and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before settling down again.


End file.
